


Donor-Conceived

by jaerie



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Americans, Artificial Insemination, Fertility Issues, Friends to Lovers, Intersex Omegas, Lactation Kink, M/M, Male Lactation, Masturbation, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Milking, Miscarriage, Miscarriage Mentioned, Omega Harry, Omega Louis, Pregnancy Kink, Pregnancy issues, References to Knotting, Sexism, Unplanned Pregnancy, birth scenes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:46:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 31,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25060345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaerie/pseuds/jaerie
Summary: When Harry receives the worst news of his life, it's now or never if he wants to carry a child of his own.  Without an alpha, it's a daunting idea.  But after it's a go, he finds another omega having a child from the same donor and become fast friends.  It is only logical that they raise the boys as half brothers, making sure their sons keep up the relationship with the only connection to their anonymous father.  It seems like the perfect plan but life doesn't always work out that way.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Comments: 24
Kudos: 273





	1. Part One

**Author's Note:**

> [I chose to write this fic based off this prompt.](https://jaerie.tumblr.com/post/619731305516679168/au-omegaomega-single-omega-harry-decides-its) Please read the tags and enjoy this journey with me :)

Harry felt like the floor had fallen out from under him. The doctor was still speaking but white noise drowned it out. This wasn’t happening. None of it was happening. It couldn’t be happening. 

“Harry?” 

Harry looked up to the concerned face of the doctor across the desk from him. 

“Pre-cancerous doesn’t mean you have cancer, but it is serious. If you weren’t so young, I would schedule the surgery before your next heat is due.” 

Harry pulled at his lip. It was still sinking in. The pain through his heats, the irregularity-- Harry thought they would just give him a pill and he’d be on his way. This was the last thing he’d imagined. 

“So what does this mean?” 

Harry wished he would have brought someone with him. His mom, his sister-- anyone, really. He wasn’t going to remember these details, but he knew he’d remember the feeling. 

“I’ll be blunt with you, Harry,” the doctor leaned forward and clasped his hands together. “Do you plan on having children?” 

Harry nodded immediately. He loved kids. He’d always wanted some of his own. It was part of his life plan. 

“Then I suggest you talk this over with your alpha. If you don’t get pregnant in the next year, the chances of being able to carry your own will be slim.” 

“I don’t have an alpha,” Harry whispered, anxiety pooling and churning and clenching at his insides. 

“There are some other options you can consider. You could freeze your eggs for surrogacy at a later time. There is the option of a sperm donor if you want to carry your own child. We’ll keep a close eye on things, but I can’t make any promises. It could be one year, it could be five. I don’t advise waiting longer than we have to.” 

Harry’s fingers felt so cold they were numb even in a room he’d originally thought felt stuffy when he’d walked in. He nodded even though his blank stare had returned as he tried to sort out his thoughts. 

“Here’s my card. I can connect you with any services you choose to use. I at least suggest freezing your eggs for your future alpha.” 

Harry huffed out a scoff and was glad it was so weak that the doctor didn’t notice. It was hard enough not to roll his eyes. 

For his future alpha. 

Fuck his future alpha. He wasn’t going to have kids for anyone but himself. Maybe he would adopt with his future alpha. There were so many kids needing a good home. Maybe he could adopt siblings so he could keep them together. 

But that would be later. Right now he needed to choose. How important was it for him to carry his own child? What would he be giving up by not experiencing a pregnancy? A birth? And if he decided it was important to him, was he even ready to be a parent at age twenty-four? Was he ready to be a  _ single _ parent at age twenty-four? 

He sat down to make a pros and cons list as soon as he got home, before he’d spoken to anyone about the news. He didn’t want outside opinions tainting his thoughts on something so important. 

He could probably kiss any dating life goodbye, at least for the first few years. And then after that, finding an alpha who wouldn’t mind that he already had a kid might be difficult, especially a kid with some random alpha. 

He didn’t have a great job. He was making enough to get by on his own, but it wasn’t what he would call a career yet. Diapers, daycare, everything else -- it would be difficult to fit everything into his already lean budget. 

It was so easy to focus on the negatives, but when he was done with his list, the pros heavily tipped the scale. 

“There’s never a right time to have a baby,” his mom told him later, “If I kept waiting for the right time, neither you nor your sister would be here. You’ll always find a reason to wait, a reason why it’s not a good time. This might be your sign. I’ll be here to help you no matter what you decide.” 

Harry fell asleep sobbing into his pillow that night, but he knew in his heart that he’d already made a decision. 

He was having a baby. 

  
  


\--

  
  


Harry didn’t know what to do with his hands. 

With his feet in stirrups and a paper sheet over his legs, he didn’t know what to do with his hands. He placed them along his sides and then crossed them over his stomach and no position felt natural. It didn’t help to calm his nerves. 

Gynecologist appointments were never Harry’s thing. He’d gone once when his mom took him when he started his heats and then once during university for birth control when he had his first steady boyfriend. Beyond that, he avoided them until the unnatural pain told him something was wrong. 

It was just weird to him to have someone  _ down there _ . He was always on the table wondering if they thought he wasn’t clean enough or judging the way he shaved or a million other things he was sure they never even noticed for the few seconds they had a peek and a swab for tests. 

This time was different, so much different. 

There were so many tests and shots and preparation and, in just a matter of minutes, a strange alpha’s sperm would be injected into his body. 

He stared up at the ceiling and thought about the stranger’s profile as he might fantasize about a crush. He still remembers laughing over the phone with Gemma as they looked at profiles, all of it seeming so absurd. 

But when he finally got down to it while he was on his own, he thought that maybe he should have thought harder about what he was looking for. For ethnicity he’d chosen Canadian because Canadians are nice, right? Eye colour? He wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure about any of it. He clicked the search with only Canadian and then looked at the profiles it returned. 

Blue eyes? Blue eyes would be cute. Very striking. Or maybe the one with green eyes like his own? Yeah, he’d go with green. That narrowed it down. Height? Six feet. That would be good. Harry was a tall omega so he thought maybe tall would be good. Occupation? History writer. 

Harry clicked on that profile. Describes himself as outgoing, friendly, polite. That sounded good. Hobbies? Writing, reading, hiking, surfing. Those were acceptable answers, interesting even. English and Irish descent, sure. His parents were teachers, that was probably a good thing. No known genetic diseases. Brown hair, fair complextion, medium build--- Harry was ready just to pick and get it over with or he’d go mad trying to find the “best” father for his child. It didn’t work like that in the real world. He didn’t want to hand pick his baby’s father over a list of desired attributes. He didn’t care what his child would look like. He almost wondered if they offered a “wild card” option. 

This one. He’d pick this one. 

He giggled over the rating system that placed various styles of stars in the different fields. Platinum donors with thirty million sperm or more per vial. Platinum Premier with thirty million plus known pregnancies. It all seemed so silly. But he still looked and his random choice did have confirmed pregnancies so that was a good sign. Maybe his child could find his half siblings out there some day. That might be cool. 

Yet on the table, Harry started to second guess himself. Should he have chosen someone more diverse? Someone that didn’t sound like an alpha description of himself? Fuck, he hadn’t realized that was what he was doing until now. Could he change his mind?

“Okay, Harry, are you ready?” 

No. No, he wasn’t ready. It was suddenly all too fast. What if he’d made the wrong decision? His life was never going to be the same again after this very moment. 

He took a deep breath in and nodded. He still didn’t know what to do with his hands. 

The metal opening him was cold and then gloved fingers pressing around inside. 

“You might feel that cramping that we talked about,” the doctor coached him through it and he finally knew what to do with his hands. He covered his face with them and again wished he would have brought his mom or sister with him for this part as well, for someone to hold his hand and keep him calm. 

“Aaaand we’re all done!” 

The doctor pushed away from the table, switched off the light and then began to take off the gloves. Harry only felt slightly less exposed with the paper pulled back down. He peeked out from behind his hands and then rested them across his stomach. 

“I’ll have you stay on the table for a while to let the sperm do their thing and I’ll be back with some information.” 

Harry smiled back weakly and stared up at the ceiling again once the door clicked shut. It was happening. He was getting pregnant at that very moment. A strange alpha’s sperm was inside his body getting him pregnant. Too late to back out now. 

He took a deep breath in and slowly let it out. He pulled his phone out and took a picture of his paper sheet covered legs. 

_ It’s happening! _ He captioned as he sent it to the group chat he was in with Gemma and his mom. 

_ I don’t think you’re not supposed to take pictures inside the clinic Harry! _

He rolled his eyes with a little laugh. Of course that’s his mom’s take away from that. 

_ Yay! Congrats mommie! _ Gemma sent a moment later and that made him smile. 

Even if he was doing this alone, at least he wasn’t  _ in this _ alone. 

He placed a hand low on his belly, right above his cock and let out a shaky breath. It really was happening. Right there inside his body he was making a baby. Of course he was nervous, but he was also giddy with the thought. He couldn’t fret about his donor choices when it was already done. Now it was on to the real deal. Harry was going to have a baby. 

  
  


\--

  
  


Harry’s appointment had been on a Friday so he could spend the weekend doing nothing but relax and encourage his body to do its thing. By noon on Saturday, he realized that making no plans had been a mistake. He was going stir crazy. There wasn’t anything he could do but  _ wait  _ and that was  _ so hard _ . 

He started in with stupid Google searches he’d told himself he wouldn’t do, all of it just making him more antsy. He went over all his paperwork again and then remembered the email he’d received after he’d logged in to confirm his donor and payment method. They had forum for verified patients going through the same thing. He found himself logging in. 

It was confusing to navigate at first and it didn’t seem like a space he belonged. Omegas with fertility issues trying multiple times, OLO threads for happy couples-- Harry couldn’t find one that really fit his situation. It wasn’t until he clicked the DONOR CONNECTION link that he realized what it was. Each thread’s topic was just a collection of letters and numbers and then it clicked. 

He shuffled through his papers even though he knew his donor’s number by heart already. He’d been asked to verify it too many times to count. 

“Why isn’t there a search function,” Harry mumbled as he scrolled through pages of numbers looking for C574. He only made it to the third page before there it was. His number, right there. The last post had only been from two weeks ago. He clicked it. 

_ Hi! This donor number was blank so I’m not sure if no one else has chosen this guy (is that a bad sign??) or if they just haven’t posted here? Confirmed pregnancy here if anyone wants to chat.  _

Harry clicked reply and sat there pulling at his bottom lip. What should he say?  _ Hey I think we both got knocked up by the same stranger? _ He shook his head. 

_ Hi. I think we have the same donor. _

He typed it and then hit post, immediately regretting his choice of words. He groaned and closed his laptop before moping back to bed. The doctor had said that orgasms would help so that was exactly what Harry was going to do -- jerk away his embarrassment. 

He’d all but forgotten the message after an orgasm and a nap and it wasn’t until he was eating a late dinner in front of the tv when his phone alerted him to a new email. Usually he didn’t check, but he was bored. To his surprise, it was a reply to his message. 

Setting his plate aside, he pulled out his laptop and logged in. 

_ Do you think or are you sure? You don’t sound too confident about that! To be honest I forgot all about this thing. I’ll PM you my phone number if you want to chat. :)  _

A phone number? Exchanging numbers with a stranger before they’d even exchanged names felt like they were moving too fast. He wasn’t sure he was okay with that--

Harry paused and looked down at his still flat stomach. He’d just impregnated himself with a stranger’s sperm. He could handle a phone conversation. Or maybe a text. He could start with a text. 

He saved the phone number into his phone as C574 and then pulled up a text. 

_ Hi. i’m Harry.  _ _   
_ _ From the forums  _

**Hi harry from the forums** **  
** **I’m Louis from the forums**

Harry felt a flutter of excitement. Another male omega? What were the odds? 

_ Hi! And yes, i’m sure. C574. just happened yesterday.  _

**Just got confirmation about 2 wks ago so i guess i’m about a month ahead of you**

_ What are the odds of that timing!  _

**tbh i got a little nervous when no one else had posted. Maybe a new donor?**

_ Maybe! So i guess the sperm is good then?  _

**Strange way to put that, but i’m pregnant soooo yes**

Harry blushed. He didn’t want to sound stupid. There was a pull to connect with this stranger growing his baby’s half sibling and he didn’t want to mess it up. 

_ Yeah, i’m hoping it takes. Fingers crossed.  _

**Good luck then! First round? Fertility issues?**

_ Yes and not exactly. Future issues. Probably my last chance to carry my own.  _

**I’m sorry. That’s rough.**

_ You?  _

Hey can i call you? 

Harry paused. The ice had already been broken. It didn’t seem like such a big deal anymore. 

Sure. 

The phone rang a moment later. 

_ “Hey, sorry, my screen has just been giving me a headache lately.”  _

“No, that’s okay. I don’t mind.” 

Harry got more comfortable on the couch, stretching out his legs and closing his eyes. He was supposed to be relaxing. 

_ “So where were we… Oh yeah. So I’m OLO -- sorry if that is an issue for you -- and was planning to have this baby with my partner.”  _

“No, of course that isn’t an issue for me. Love is love, right?” 

_ “Yeah, sure, love is love until your son of a bitch partner decides to run off and fuck some alpha hours after you’ve been inseminated with the child they convinced you to have. Sorry, sorry…”  _

Harry heard a heavy sigh on the phone but couldn’t help the small giggle he let out. The outburst was just so unexpected and so passionate. 

“No! Don’t be sorry.  _ I’m _ sorry. That’s shit, honestly.” 

_ “Yeah, well, what’s done is done and now I’m having this baby with the donor that  _ he _ picked out.”  _

“At least your baby will have a half sibling! I think that’s kind of nice.” 

_ “I guess it is. I hadn’t thought about it like that. It would be nice to keep in touch, you know, give them some sort of connection to their anonymous dad.”  _

“I’ll be raising this baby on my own, too. I have a precancerous condition that will probably require surgery soon so I had to decide whether I wanted to carry my own baby or not. I don’t have an alpha right now or anything and decided to go for it. Now or never.” 

_ “We’re both in shit situations, huh? But,” Louis sighed on the other end of the line. He sounded so tired, “The break up is still fresh, he hasn’t even moved out all his shit yet. But I’ve been ready for this baby. I had a few miscarriages before this with Adam. We were trying for a while. OLO pregnancies are just so high risk. We couldn’t get one to stick.”  _

“I can’t even imagine,” Harry replied softly. He couldn’t even imagine how it would feel to lose a baby with a partner. He already knew he’d be devastated if it happened with this one while he didn’t even know the father. 

_ “I’ve dealt with it. I’m _ dealing _ with it. I think… I think it’s better that it's happening this way? Easier to cut the ties without the genetic legal rights and all that. Thankfully all the treatments and payments were through me… Do you mind if I ask how old you are? You don’t have to answer, of course. It doesn’t make any difference. I’m just curious.” _

“No, that’s fine. I’m twenty-four.” 

_ “Oh wow, that’s young to have such a decision on your plate. I’m only twenty-six. It’ll be nice to, you know, have someone to go through all this with. Someone who isn’t judging me for being a single omega parent or for my age.”  _

“Yeah, it will be nice. Do you live around here?” 

_ “I’m not sure where “here” is. I’m from the Denver area.”  _

Harry frowned. That wasn’t close at all. He wasn’t sure why he’d just assumed that the sperm bank was local. Then he remembered that the donor he’d chosen was Canadian and that didn’t have to mean he even lived in the United States. Maybe it was even international. 

“Oh. I’m kind of near Chicago.” 

_ “Oh cool! I lived in Illinois for a while as a kid. I still have some family there I think.”  _

“I don’t know why I thought the bank was local,” he ended up blurting out. 

_ “I think they contract with different clinics so it probably seemed local if that’s the only option they gave you.”  _

Harry hummed in agreement. “I just hadn’t thought about it being shipped here or something. In my head they just walked over to the fridge to grab the jizz.” 

Louis snorted. 

_ “I think it’s a little more complicated than that.”  _

“I know, the nurse was telling me about washing the samples and losing sperm along the way like they were left behind in battle or something,” he giggled. “Only pure clinical sperm up in this vag! None of the rest of that mess.” 

_ “Ugh! Alphas are soooo messy. I don’t know how you put up with that, honestly. With O’s it’s a manageable amount and then you’re done. None of that twenty minute fountain bullshit. I just want to get off and then get on with my day.”  _

Harry was in tears from laughter by the time Louis was done with his rant and already knew they were going to get along great. It wasn’t one particular thing, but Louis helped to fill at least part of the space that had increasingly been occupied by his anxieties lately. 

_ “Hey, so I’m going to head to bed since I’ve already been needing at least twelve hours of sleep to function, but it’s been really nice talking with you, Harry. It’s nice to meet you. Let me know when you get your tests back?”  _

“Yeah, I will. Sleep well.” 

Harry hung up smiling and sent good vibes down to his tummy. 

  
  


\--

  
  


It was early on a Saturday morning when Harry finally allowed himself to take a pregnancy test. They told him it wouldn’t be immediately detectable and he’d held off as long as he could. Two weeks in and he couldn’t hold off any longer and now, on the bathroom floor with the test still in his hand, the first person he thought to call was Louis. 

He had a strange thought as he listened to the phone ring against his ear that he barely even knew Louis. They’d exchanged a few texts, but that was about it. He thought he would be calling his mom with the news first. 

_ “Hello?”  _ Louis’ groggy voice answered. 

“Hey, it’s Harry.” 

_ “I knew that.”  _

Harry felt silly but Louis was laughing so that was okay. 

“Sorry if I woke you up. I didn’t realize how early it was.” 

_ “What time is it? Jesus, it’s six in the morning. What are you doing up so early?”  _

“I just took a pregnancy test.” 

_ “And…?”  _

“It’s positive.” 

Harry had to sniff back a small sob that caught in his throat, his eyes suddenly blurry with tears. His next breath in was uneven and loud. 

_ “Hey, what’s wrong? Isn’t that a good thing?”  _

“Ye--yeah! I just-- just thought I’d be doing this for the first time with my alpha, I guess. Not alone on my bathroom floor.” 

_ “Hey, it’s okay, yeah? You’re not alone, I’m here with you. I took my first test in a Wendy’s bathroom while my friend was ordering chicken nuggets so you already have a better story.”  _

Harry laughed through his tears along with Louis. 

“Why were you doing it in a Wendy’s bathroom??” 

_ “My friend Niall needs to eat his weight in food every day or he’ll probably pass out and die. That’s how he acts, anyway,” _ Louis laughed,  _ “I wanted to go straight home from the drugstore but he detoured so many times I just gave up and peed on the stick at Wendy’s and then kept sticking it in his face the whole way home.”  _

“Oh my god,” Harry snorted, his distress momentarily forgotten. 

_ “So see? You’ve got it pretty good.”  _

“Are you going to tell that story to your kid someday?” 

_ “Of course I am! Because Niall will tell them and try to twist the story and I’ll have to correct him!”  _ They both laughed.  _ “I don’t plan on being the kind of parent that keeps things from my kid. They deserve to know that the world isn’t always a fairy tale and that’s okay. I’m not going to let them think they were conceived in some magical romantic cut away from a movie. I worked hard to get here and they’re going to know every disappointing detail of it!”  _

“I like that. I don’t plan on keeping this process to myself either. Especially if this is genetic. Realistic doesn’t always have to be a bad thing.” 

_ “My mom was a midwife so I’ve had a realistic picture of pregnancy and birth. I think it’s been helpful coping with all the issues, yeah? And I think it’s the same way with life. Finding out in a Wendy’s bathroom didn’t change the results and that’s what matters.” _

“Yeah, you’re right.” 

_ “So don’t worry about those what ifs. You’re pregnant and that’s what matters, right? So how are you feeling?”  _

Harry turns the pregnancy test over and over again on his thigh, the little pink lines not as crisp as they were at first. 

“I feel good other than being a little nervous. I had some bad side effects from the shots before going in and those are gone now. So that’s good.” 

_ “Enjoy it while you can! I swear my whole body feels like it’s trying to evict me.”  _

Harry huffed out a laugh. “That bad, huh?” 

_ “I’m not trying to scare you, but the hormonal shift for male Os is more violent so prepare for a few rough months. It’s normal, the body changes are just more extreme. If I didn’t have the pod, I’d be miserable. I’m in there almost every day.”  _

“Pod?” 

_ “Float pod? Float therapy?” _

Harry had no idea what that was. “What?” 

_ “Sensory deprivation? It’s this thing with a high concentration of salt water so your body floats and it’s at body temperature so when you’re in there in the dark it just feels like you’re floating through space. It’s really great for body aches and meditation and a lot of things. I co-own a float center here with Niall. I highly recommend it.”  _

“Like a salt water swimming pool?” 

_ “No, not really. Usually about ten inches of water or so and wide enough so you can spread out your arms and legs like an angel without hitting the sides. You go in completely naked and you just… float.”  _

“I’ve never heard of that.” 

Louis laughed.  _ “I promise it is better than I’m making it sound. We opened about three years ago and it’s grown a lot in popularity since then. Maybe you can come out for a visit and I can show you.”  _

“Yeah, that sounds cool,” Harry nodded to himself.

_ “Speaking of,” _ Louis said through a yawn,  _ “I better start waking myself to go open.”  _

“On a Saturday?” 

_ “Open seven days a week! We rotate weekends if one of our employees is off.”  _

“Oh, cool. Have fun then.” 

_ “Talk to you soon, okay?”  _

“Yeah, bye.” 

  
  


\--

  
  


Harry’s phone signalled a message and he groaned and stretched out his arm to make grabby hands at it across the room. Of course there was no one there to retrieve it for him, but you never know, he might have developed magical skills along with the other changes happening in his body. 

He’d been on the couch since he walked in, home early from work after he felt so dizzy all he could do was sit there with his hands over his face, unable to help any customers. Being horizontal had helped, but now his phone was across the room and he really wanted to see if it was his doctor’s office offering him a miracle cure. 

He was able to humble himself to travel across the room in a slow crawl, fishing for his phone in his bag on top of the table without ever standing up. 

The message unfortunately wasn’t from his doctor, instead it was a black and white picture message from Louis that was clearly a sonogram capture. They usually talked about once a week on the phone and sent a few texts here and there in between. It always seemed like Louis was out there living his best life while Harry had been hit with several trucks worth of relentless first trimester symptoms. It was irritating sometimes, but then everything had the potential to irritate him lately. He was nearly one of those crazy people to call 911 over a barking dog outside his apartment that clashed with his headache twice in the last week. Luckily he’d been able to hold himself back long enough to slap himself back into reality. 

His phone started ringing with  _ C574 _ on display just as he was squinting at the little sonogram image that was starting to resemble features of an actual baby. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t changed the contact information yet. 

“Hey, just got your picture.” 

_ “I just got back from my appointment and was excited to show you. They said it’s still a little early but they could definitely make out a little penis.”  _

Harry snorted out a laugh. Louis was always good at distracting him even when he wasn’t trying to. 

“That must have been quite the discovery to finally find yours! But what about the baby’s gender?” 

Louis gasped in offense.  _ “How very dare you! I’ll have you know that even though I am having this baby, I am an excellent top. No complaints.”  _

Harry shook his head as he smirked to himself. Louis was very open about sex, something Harry wasn’t used to in omegas. It was an eye opening change of pace for him. 

“That doesn’t necessarily prove anything about size,” Harry joked back. 

The fabric of the shirt he was wearing was rubbing against his sensitive nipples so he stripped it off right where he was sitting in the middle of the floor. His work slacks were next which left him just in his soft cotton briefs. 

_ “Well not all of us can be size queens like you alpha lovers,” _ Louis said with a mock huff. 

“So my baby is going to have a brother?” Harry asked as his hand wandered down to the little pudge low on his stomach that no one would even notice was there. Harry could feel the unfamiliar firmness below the surface there before he started to see it and now he couldn’t wear his jeans, afraid that he might squish it with the tight waistbands. 

_ “All I can say is that the baby has an anatomical penis according to the weird space camera.” _

“Space camera,” Harry snorted. 

_ “Or whatever you want to call it. Niall was starting to act like the other father so I kicked him out of the room and now he’s mad that I won’t tell him but I told you. He’s glaring at me through the window right now.”  _

“Aw! That’s mean!” 

_ “It’s all of nothing. If he wants to play the other father, he can’t decide he only wants the fun information. If he can’t handle hearing about constipation then he doesn’t deserve to know.” _

“Does that mean I qualify?” Harry giggled. 

_ “As far as I’m concerned, you’re already an honorary father. I already had it added to my legal documents that you have visitation rights and stuff if something happens to me.”  _

Harry was stunned for a moment. “Wait, what? Really?”

_ “With the business and then all the stuff with Adam, I updated my will and everything. You never know what’s going to happen and I wouldn’t want this guy to lose contact with his half brother if I’m gone or incapaciated or something.”  _

“Oh wow, yeah. That’s a really good idea. I don’t even have a will or anything. Do you think I should get one?” 

_ “That’s your choice. But one of my concerns without a partner was that if things weren’t clear, I didn’t want to leave an opportunity open for them to find the donor through DNA or something and chance my child being placed with some strange alpha.”  _

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Harry pulled at his bottom lip. That thought hadn’t even crossed his mind. 

_ “There are a lot of clauses to prevent that in the sperm bank contracts, but my lawyer said they aren’t airtight. The rest of my legal stuff is with ownership and assets of the float center.” _

“That makes sense. I probably should get a lawyer for that part just in case. I wouldn’t want my baby to lose contact either.” 

_ “Yeah, I’m really glad they’ll have each other.”  _

“Me too.” 

  
  


\--

  
  


“Louis,” Harry hissed into the phone in a whisper as soon as he answered, “How much blood is too much blood?” 

_ “What?”  _

“How much blood is too much blood??” 

_ “What are you talking about?”  _

“The water is red, Louis.” 

Harry was trying to keep his voice down in the stall of the public restroom at the grocery store. He’d nearly pissed his pants on the way in, but he would never have found the motivation to leave his house again if he’d gone home first and he needed marshmallows for the rice crispy treats he’d started making for himself every night. 

_ “Huh? Where are you?”  _

“I’m in the bathroom!” 

_ “Why are you whispering?”  _

“I’m in the bathroom at the grocery store!” 

_ “Why are you calling me from the bathroom of the grocery store?”  _

“Because the water is red and I’m freaking out!” 

_ “First calm down because it’s probably fine. And second, do you have any pain? Did anything unusual happen?”  _

Harry had his free hand on his stomach and started to experimentally press his hand across it. It didn’t feel any different. 

“No, I don’t think so. Nothing that I noticed. I just really had to pee and when I stood up the water was red!” 

_ “If you don’t have any pain or cramping then it’s probably fine. Spotting is normal I guess.”  _

“You guess? Did anything like this happen to you?” 

_ “Well no, but my doc said it would be normal. It just never happened.”  _

“How much blood is normal?” 

_ “If you’re worried about it, call your doctor and check it out.”  _

“That’s why I called you!” 

Louis chuckled,  _ “As another pregnant person I would love to help you out, but I really don’t know what to tell you.”  _

“Should I go to the ER?” Harry started to pull at his lip and then yanked it away in disgust. He hadn’t yet washed his hands. 

_ “If you aren’t in pain, I would just call your doctor’s office. They probably have someone on call.”  _

“Right. Yeah. They probably do.” 

He turned his wrist to look at the time on his Fitbit and hoped there might still be someone at the office since it wasn’t that long after five. 

“Okay, I’m going to call them.” 

_ “Okay, good luck.” _

Harry ended up at the hospital anyway but not with any of the alarms or sirens of a usual ER visit. He looked up at the clock and really regretted not stopping for some fast food before driving himself over since it was now past eight in the evening. He’d been too worked up to even think about eating then anyway. He should have at least accepted Gemma’s offer to come sit with him. Though by that time he’d already calmed down enough that he didn’t want to be a bother. 

There were a few missed texts on his phone when he started to get bored so he decided to call. Two birds, one stone. 

_ “Hey hadn’t heard from you in awhile, you okay?”  _

Harry smiled when he heard the concern in Louis’ voice. He could tell his other friends didn’t want to hear him go on and on about his pregnancy troubles, but Louis was always ready to listen. He was always ready to talk as well, but Harry loved the way he told even the grossest of stories. They laughed a lot. 

“I guess so. They hooked me up to a bunch of monitors and ran some tests and stuff. They’re watching everything for a while to make sure they didn’t miss anything, but they don’t know where the blood came from and they can’t find anything wrong. Probably just normal like you said.” 

_ “That’s good. I was starting to get worried.”  _

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s been kinda neat to watch the baby’s heartbeat on the thing. I didn’t realize how much faster it really was until I started watching it next to my own. I’m fucking starving now, though.” 

_ “I just ate three grilled cheese sandwiches. No regrets. Yet.”  _

Harry grinned to himself. He felt the same way when he indulged but knew he’d deal with the consequences later. 

_ “Oh hey. I was meaning to tell you that I was talking to some guy that owns a float spa kinda near you. I was wondering if you wanted to try it since it’s a 15 hour drive to get out here to me.”  _

“Maybe? I don’t really know much about it.” 

That was a small lie. He’d looked up Louis’ float center a few weeks ago, but Louis didn’t know that. 

_ “I said I’d make a trade with that guy if you were interested.”  _

“Oh, I don’t want you to be out anything for me to try it.” 

_ “No, it’s okay. It’s nothing crazy, I promise. I can set it up if you want. It’s really been helping me and I think you’d really benefit from it.”  _

“Sure. Okay.” 

  
  


\--

  
  


Harry barely made it to the driver’s seat of his car before he burst into tears. His coworkers making their way to their own vehicles around him politely pretended that he wasn’t sobbing behind the wheel. He’d never been more embarrassed in his life and now here he was making it even worse by having a breakdown in the parking lot. 

His first trimester had been the absolute worst for so many of the symptoms he was always warned about. Now, entering his second trimester, he thought he was supposed to be done with morning sickness and sensitivity to even the lightest scents. 

But no. Instead, Harry was still feeling it in violent waves, this time right in front of a customer at his window. 

It had nearly happened a few times before, but he’d always been able to quickly grab a coworker to finish the transaction so he could run to the restroom to empty his stomach for what felt like the millionth time. This time the man in front of him had smelled so strongly of cigarette smoke that Harry hardly had time to even slide off his stool before he was yacking into the trash can under his desk. 

The man had, of course, complained to his manager who had absolutely no sympathy for his pregnant state and reminded Harry in a less than polite way that breaks were taken only on a strict schedule and if he couldn’t comply, he should start looking for a job that was better suited for his condition. Harry felt like such a failure on top of his embarrassment from the day. He couldn’t afford to lose his job and his health insurance that went along with it. He didn’t even know where he would even go to get another job when he was already so far into his pregnancy. Hopeless anxiety seeped in heavily. 

He’d been crying for nearly an hour when his phone rang and he saw that it was Louis. He didn’t want to answer and have Louis hear his wrecked voice, but Louis had such a way of distracting him and making him feel better. 

_ “So??? Did you find out?” _ Louis asked right away. 

“Find out what?” Harry’s voice cracked. 

_ “Oh no, is there something wrong with the baby? I waited as long as I could but I was getting really antsy to hear about your appointment.”  _

Harry froze and then another wave of emotion caused him to wilt. 

“Fuck!!” he slammed his hand on the steering wheel. He’d completely forgotten about his appointment. He had received permission to leave work a half hour early to make it for his sonogram and the trash incident had distracted him. 

“I forgot about my appointment,” Harry whimpered as he leaned his head back and a fresh wave of tears rushed down his cheeks. He felt so exhausted he didn’t even know if he could drive himself home. 

_ “I’m sorry,” _ Louis said gently and it was more comfort than Harry felt he deserved.  _ “Rough day?”  _

Harry’s breath hitched in a sound that came out half sob and half laugh. “I think I’m going to be fired from my job.” 

_ “What?? Why??” _ Louis sounded so genuinely outraged for him and they still hardly even knew each other. He wasn’t even sure Louis really knew where he worked. They shared intimate details of their pregnancies yet the everyday things didn’t always come up. 

“I threw up in front of a customer today. Right there behind my desk. I stood up and it just happened. I couldn’t help it. He just smelled like a big cloud of stale cigarette smoke and it just happened.” 

_ “That’s not your fault. It happens. I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as you think it is.”  _

“The guy complained and I got told off for throwing up and leaving my desk too many times,” he sniffed. 

_ “They can’t do that. There has to be some sort of law against that.”  _

“I don’t know. I can’t afford to lose my job. And my insurance. And everything,” he hiccuped and almost threw up all over himself again. “I’m in my second trimester, why is this still happening?? Throwing up is a first trimester thing!!” 

_ “Hate to break it to you, but there isn’t a definite end date on that. For me it comes and goes.”  _

“It was supposed to stop,” he sniffed, blowing his nose with one of the paper napkins from the stack he’d swiped from McDonald’s. 

_ “Call and reschedule your appointment and ask about it then. But I’m sure it’s normal. Do you have anyone you can talk to about it at work? Maybe an HR department? Sounds like a lawsuit to me if they fire you over that. Where do you work again?”  _

“A bank,” Harry tried to keep his breathing even, each hiccup and sniff making the muscles in his stomach ache. “I was hoping to get into the loan department but that’s probably not going to happen now.” 

_ “I guess I’m not familiar with the law, but I really don’t think they can fire you for that. I haven’t had a pregnant staff member yet, except myself, so maybe it would be good for me to know. Not that I would ever fire someone for that!! Just, you know, as a business owner.” _

“He seemed pretty serious. And I just feel like crap all the time. Well, not all the time, but at least part of every day. I’m so tired of it.” Harry sighed and wiped at his face with another napkin. He heard a noise over the phone and it took him a second to realize it was crunching. “Are you eating right now?” 

_ “I’m always eating. It’s my one chance to not feel guilty about gaining weight,”  _ Louis laughed and crunched loudly for emphasis. 

Harry let out a wet laugh. Louis could always make him laugh. 

“I keep losing weight. I swear some days I can barely keep anything down. This is such hell.” 

_ “We’re supposed to be glowing!” _

“Glowing, right,” Harry rolled his eyes. He made the mistake of catching a glimpse of himself in the rearview mirror, eyes puffy and red like the rest of this blotchy face. Glowing with misery is how Harry would put it. 

_ “This is only temporary. Just keep thinking of the end game. And if they try to fire you, threaten a lawsuit and if they still fire you, then actually file a lawsuit.”  _

Harry blew his nose into a napkin. “Yeah, okay.” 

_ “Now call your doctor and reschedule because I want to know if my baby is going to have a half brother or half sister!”  _

  
  


\--

  
  


Harry wasn’t sure why he kept insisting on going to all of his appointments. He always regretted it when he was anxious as he waited for the exams and scans. When he scheduled the appointments, they always felt like something he should do on his own. Without an alpha, he already felt a little weird and thought that bringing his mom with him seemed childish. 

But then he was staring at the little image of his baby and hearing its heartbeat with no one to hold his hand or share such a beautiful moment with. It made him feel especially lonely during those times he always imagined going through with his alpha. 

Instead, he just called Louis as soon as he got home. He was still kicking off his shoes and stripping down to nothing when Louis picked up. 

_ “Hey! I was just talking about you!”  _

“You were?” Harry asked as he went straight for the cool sheets of his bed, the touch on his naked skin so much more soothing than his clothes on his aching body. 

_ “Yeah. Was just telling Niall I hadn’t heard from you yet.”  _

“I just got home.” 

_ “Sooooo? How did it go?”  _

“Everything looks fine, tests are all normal. I just have to deal with the morning sickness,” Harry sighed. He had hoped there would be some miracle cure, but there wasn’t and his weight loss wasn’t notable enough to be serious. 

_ “Annnnd?”  _

“Healthy little boy in there,” Harry rubbed a hand over his belly that had really popped out recently. No chance of hiding it even in baggy clothing now. “The technician said she would wager to say alpha with his growth, but I’d have to have the genetic testing done to be sure.” 

_ “A friend of mine swears up and down I’m having an alpha because my boobs have been so sore. I argued it’s just because I obviously never had any before so growing them is painful. He said in the three of his pregnancies, it was a lot less painful when he was pregnant with his omega daughter.”  _

“Who know? He might be onto something. Mine are so sore I just want to be naked all the time and that hurts too but at least there’s nothing touching them.” 

_ “Naked, hmm, now there’s an idea. Niall is shaking his head at me like he’s ready to kick me out if I take my clothes off.”  _

“I highly recommend it. My skin is so stretched and itchy I take everything off as soon as I get home.” 

_ “Are you naked right now?”  _

Harry snorted. “Yeah. I had to get out of my clothes. And I hate wearing bras but my nipples are way too sensitive when I move if I don’t. It’s a different kind of suffering either way.” 

_ “I relate. But it makes me want to touch them all the time too. Niall says I do it all the time when I don’t realize it. Like if I’m really zoned out working on something.” _

Harry slid his free hand to cup his newly forming breast, pinching the nipple gently to experiment. It actually did feel good even if it was sensitive and sore. 

“Yeah, I could see that happening. It does feel oddly good.” 

_ “Harry!” _ Louis mocked being scandalized,  _ “Are you touching yourself right now?”  _

“What? No—”

_ “I’m just teasing you, Harry. Explore your body all you want. I definitely appreciate the omagan body myself, even my own, and let me tell you, I have had some amazing sex with myself since all this happened.”  _

“What?” Harry squawked and squeezed his handful of breast. He hadn’t been expecting such an open comment. 

_ “Don’t act like such a prude! Sorry, that was to Niall. Fine! I’m going to my office!”  _

Harry laughed at his exchange. He hoped to meet Niall one day and see how they were together in person. 

_ “Niall’s just beta. He doesn’t understand these things,” _ Louis laughed and he heard a door close,  _ “Now, where were we?”  _

“You getting off on yourself,” Harry nearly giggled as he said it. 

_ “You act like you don’t!” _

“Not on myself, no.”

Harry wrinkled his nose and looked down at his hand on his breast. He didn’t think about himself. He didn’t think so anyway. Most of the time it was faceless alphas or knots or even just the feeling to get the job done. 

_ “Does that make me weird?” _ Louis asked. Harry imagined him wrinkling his nose in question. 

“I don’t know. I guess not?” 

_ “I guess I’ve just been ready to be pregnant for so long that I love seeing and feeling the changes. Don’t you?”  _

“I hadn’t thought about it from that angle.” He looked down at his body and slid down to roam over the curve of his belly. “I guess you’re right. I do like how it looks.” 

_ “Feels good to think about it like that, doesn’t it?”  _

Harry started to think of his own touch in a different way, sensual strokes that made his sensitive skin tingle. He was sure he could get hard from it if he kept going. 

_ “Maybe as an OLO I’m biased, but I already think pregnant male omegas are so hot so then to feel the changes myself… It can just really get me going. Not to weird you out or anything, but I’m sure pregnancy looks really good on you too. I mean, I’ve only seen your facebook profile picture, but I can fill in the rest.”  _

“You can add me, you know. You don’t have to be a creeper.” 

_ “You can blame Niall for that. He wanted to make sure you weren’t a serial killer or some alpha stalker catfishing me.”  _

“Are you satisfied that I’m not?” 

_ “At this point, if you are catfishing me, I won’t even be mad with the amount of effort you’ve put into acting.”  _

Harry snorted. “I promise I’m not making up my miserable pregnancy.” 

_ “It’s not all bad.”  _

“No, it’s not all bad,” Harry admitted, “The bad parts just take more of my time and energy.” 

_ “So go be naked and give your body the love it deserves!”  _

“You want me to hang up to masturbate?” 

_ “Personally, I wouldn’t mind if you stayed on the phone while you did, but whatever works for you!”  _

Harry laughed as he rolled his eyes. 

“I’m kidding. Go touch yourself and get some endorphins moving!” 

Harry shook his head as Louis disconnected the call. He was still getting to know Louis but his life seemed so different even though they were both pregnant omegas facing everything without a partner. Louis had more positivity about it and that made sense. Even if things hadn’t worked out with his partner, he’d been preparing himself to go through everything for a long time. Harry had been rushed into a decision and was now realizing he hadn’t been mentally prepared for a pregnancy. 

Maybe that was why the pregnancy was so rough on him. 

He thought about what Louis had said and wondered if maybe he was just looking at everything with the wrong mindset. He closed his eyes and smoothed both hands over his belly, holding the underside for a moment before dragging them back up. Even if it was unconventional, this baby really was made with love. When it came down to it, this baby was made from love with himself. 

Unlike many pregnancies, Harry knew exactly when his baby had been conceived. After the sperm had been injected, he’d spent the entire weekend loving himself to increase his chances so really, why wouldn’t he continue that through the pregnancy? 

A baby made with himself. When he thought about it like that, it was easy to spin them in a sexual direction. Each stroke of his belly made him harder, resisting the urge to touch until the tip was wet, drops sliding off the head onto his stomach. It made him moan to look down at the sight, his cock peeking over his belly as it begged for attention. 

“Fuck,” he moaned as he squirmed against the sheets. He could feel how wet he was between his legs as well as his thighs pressed together, clenching around nothing as he craved more. 

He still refused to touch, his hands wandering up to cup his forming breasts. They were swelling by the day, a few thin stretch marks appearing from their quick growth. That only bothered him a little since he knew that would probably be the smallest lasting change to his body. His nipples were getting darker too and he gently pinched them between his finger and thumb until they were hard. 

He held himself back and then moaned when he realized no one was there to witness what he was doing. Even if they were, it wasn’t any of their business. It felt good and he wanted to enjoy himself. 

His cock twitched as he pulled on his nipples until he could hardly stand it, wanting so much all at once. It had been well over a year since he’d been with an alpha and he knew it would be a long time before he had one again. If he didn’t learn how to satisfy himself now, he might just go crazy. 

He had to prop himself up on his pillows in order to reach between his legs, bypassing even his balls to circle his fingertips through his slick. A moment later he slid two fingers into his body, moaning as it satisfied the edge of need he was feeling. 

He couldn’t hold himself back from circling his free hand around his cock, stroking in slow and teasing motions. The stretched muscles across his belly clenched and released in a shadow of what he used to feel low in the same space when he was getting close. 

It was strange in that moment, but he remembered what it felt like to feel the uncomfortable insertion of the thin tube through his cervix. He’d been so anxious at the time but now the memory turned him on. There was no question. That feeling was what most omegas didn’t get. That was him getting pregnant. 

He came all over his belly with a loud moan with the thoughts of making his baby rushing through his head. It felt so good that it took him a long time to recover, his body limp on the bed as he let his mind bask in the afterglow. He hadn’t felt so good in weeks. 

Maybe Louis was on to something. 

  
  


\--

  
  


“Have you been thinking about names yet?” Harry asked Louis towards the end of his second trimester. It was something that he had started to daydream about now that he was stationed at the drive thru. With technology, that meant he was in a corner room by himself with just the video monitors to interact when someone drove up. Since it was usually only busy first thing in the morning and then over lunch, Harry had a lot of time to let his thoughts wander. 

_ “A little bit,” _ Louis answered.  _ “I have been trying to think of family names, but haven’t come up with any I like yet.”  _

“I got a baby name book. Is that cheesy? Should I be looking for something more personal than a name out of a book?” 

_ “I don’t think it matters as long as you like it,” _ Louis assured him,  _ “He’s probably going to hate it at some point in his life anyway.”  _

“Gee thanks. That makes me feel so much better.” 

_ “Kids are kids,”  _ Louis laughed,  _ “I went through a long phase of insisting everyone pronounce my name differently and I think a lot of kids go through some form of that. Am I right, Harold?”  _

“It’s just Harry. Harold sounds like an old man.” 

_ “See? Even you don’t like your name.”  _

“Because my name isn’t Harold,” Harry chuckled, “She won’t admit it, but I’m fairly certain that she named me after Prince Harry. I want to pick a name that could have a cute nickname.” 

_ “Just don’t pick one of the overused baby names. I cringe at the classes that have ten Aidens or whatever is popular right now.”  _

“I don’t want to pick something generic either.” 

_ “You could always hire a baby naming service.”  _

“Is that a thing? That seems really stupid and impersonal.” 

_ “I didn’t think so and then I saw some 90’s musician’s wives started up something like that. Looked pretty stupid to me.”  _

“I don’t think I’d want to pay someone else to pick a name. What about Laurence? Laurie would be cute. Like in Little Women.” 

_ “Laurence? Really? Maybe you should pay someone,”  _ Louis laughed. 

“Heeeey! Shut up. I think it’s cute.” He felt the baby kick which was a fairly recent development and thought maybe that was a sign he didn’t like Laurence for himself either. He placed his hand on his belly in the same spot.

_ “I was thinking Tyler possibly.”  _

_ “Tyler?”  _

_ “Sure. Why not? I haven’t met any young Tyler’s lately.”  _

“You really want to name your baby Tyler Tomlinson?” 

_ “Well not when you say it like that!” _ Louis huffed.  _ “Okay, maybe you’re right. What about Theodore? He could be Teddy.”  _

“For you or for me?” 

_ “I don’t know. Either. This is a lot of pressure now that I’m thinking about it.”  _

“See?? I always thought I had my baby names picked out in high school, but now that it’s here, I don’t like any of them.” 

_ “What did you pick in high school?”  _

“Luke. Like Star Wars. Or maybe Lucas. I don’t want to name my kid after a movie anymore. That doesn’t seem very, I don’t know, personal? It feels disconnected now that I’m actually pregnant. I’ll always think of Star Wars for the rest of my life naming him that.” 

_ “Fair enough. But Little Women is okay?”  _

“That’s different! The book is a classic! And I only thought of that after I thought of the name.” 

Louis laughed and it made Harry crack a smile. 

_ “Star Wars is a classic movie! Seems about the same to me.”  _

“I was maybe 12 and thought having twins named Luke and Leia would be the obvious choice. I’m sure names you thought up wouldn’t be any better.” 

_ “Yeah, Red Ranger probably isn’t a good choice.”  _

“Sounds perfect to me.” 

Harry grinned to himself as he rocked in his chair, the motion somehow helping the queasy feeling he often had after he ate. 

_ “Only if he’s a ginger,”  _ Louis said seriously. 

“Do you have red hair in your family? The profile said brown hair, but I guess I don’t remember if any of the family members did.” 

_ “A reddish tint maybe, not a full head of red hair. I think it was all brown hair if I remember correctly. I would have gone for someone more diverse personally. It would have been fun to pop out a baby with bright blonde or jet black hair. Even a ginger since they’re going extinct and all. Adam was just boring, I guess.”  _

“Why didn’t you choose someone else?” 

_ “That was the arrangement. If I was going to carry and be the biological parent, he got to choose his half. Seemed fair at the time when I thought we’d be raising him together.”  _

“I keep questioning my choice, but I’m glad I did since we were able to connect. This has been so much easier than going through everything on my own.”

_ “Me too. It’s nice to have someone outside the situation. Everyone here keeps fussing over me like I can’t handle things on my own. I don’t have a problem accepting help, but I don’t like when everyone just assumes I need it.”  _

“Yeah, I know what you mean. I’m getting a little nervous about leaning on my mom too much. I’ve been thinking about moving in with her before the baby gets here. I don’t have enough saved up to take the full three months of maternity leave and pay rent and pay for everything else. And then when I’m back at work, I think the only way I can afford child care is if she helps. She’s semi-retired now, but I also feel bad putting that responsibility on her.” 

_ “If she minded, I’m sure she’d say something. Did you say you were moving in or did she offer?”  _

“She brought it up first. A lot of planning went into this, it isn’t like I just randomly got knocked up. It was now or never and she was on board with having a grandbaby before I wouldn’t be able to anymore. Doesn’t make me feel like less of a failure, though.” 

Harry looked around the room at the baby things he already had, everything still in boxes knowing he would probably have to move. 

_ “You’re not a failure. There’s nothing wrong with that. There are many cultures where that is even expected. Multi generational households are more common than you’d think.” _

“Yeah, I guess so.” 

_ “I know so. And I’ll be jealous when you always have someone around to help out.”  _

“I guess. It just feels like moving in the wrong direction.”

_ “Don’t dwell on it. You’ll get back out on your own when you were meant to.” _

“I’m sure I’ll feel different once I’m there and settled in. I’m just used to being independent and doing what I want when I want.” 

_ “That will change with a newborn anyway.”  _

“Good point.”

  
  


\--

  
  


Harry was well into his third trimester when moving day rolled around. It was one of the only times he was glad he hadn’t spent a lot of time furnishing his small apartment since he would have had to sell everything anyway. 

He stood sideways in front of his long mirror as he waited for the high school alphas from his mom’s neighborhood to show up to help move everything for him. He was glad she’d found some willing to help for some extra money since Harry could hardly carry his own suitcase of personal items in his state. 

His belly was huge on his narrow frame now, the maternity pants stretched where they were pulled up higher than any pants he’d ever worn. He took a final mirror selfie in that spot and looked around at his things packed into boxes. 

It was sad to be giving up his space and a good deal of his privacy. He already knew his mom wouldn’t approve of his daily trips to Wendy’s when he couldn’t rest until he had a large fry with a chocolate Frosty to dip them in in his hands. She meant well and she loved him, but Harry was very pregnant and very not in the mood to be lectured on eating healthy. 

Everyone arrived in his small apartment and all Harry could do was stand and watch, useless to the process. Thankfully they’d already spent some time converting Gemma’s old room into a nursery, pushing the bed and dresser to the side so there would be some space for all the baby supplies. That meant they just needed to fit Harry back into his old space. 

He insisted on bringing his bed which took up half of his old room and most of his boxes were being tucked away on storage shelves in the basement like those parts of himself would just have to wait until he had room for them again. It was physical manifestation of making room for a new baby, his own life on hold for the foreseeable future. 

_ “How’d the move go?”  _ Louis asked on the phone once Harry was in bed. He was uncomfortable and shifting around in his pajamas since it felt too weird to be sleeping naked when his mom could technically walk in any minute. He knew she wouldn’t, but that didn’t stop the feeling. 

“Okay I guess. I didn’t have to do much but watch it all happen.” 

Harry tried his best to make himself comfortable with his body pillow but everything felt too hot and too uncomfortable against his skin.

_ “That’s good. I think you’ll be grateful to have your mom around once the baby is born. I’m trying to talk my sister into coming to stay with me. So far she’s not interested.”  _

“I’m sure Niall will help you out,” Harry grinned to himself. 

_ “Yeah right. He’s only in it for the high points of having a baby. He’ll hand him back the second he starts crying or needs changed. He already doesn’t want to hear my pregnancy problems.”  _

“That’s what I’m here for,” Harry chuckled. 

_ “Well the other day I started leaking, like straight up leaking. I just looked down and my shirt was wet. So that’s been fun.”  _

“Milk?” Harry asked, his own hand moving to his breast. 

_ “Yup. Only on the one side too so that’s been awkward. I guess it’s normal, but it’s weird.”  _

“I haven’t had anything like that yet. Does that mean you’re close to going into labour?” 

_ “I hoped so, but they said it isn’t an indication of anything like that. I hope it means that, though. I am so ready to not be pregnant anymore. My mom went early with all of her kids, so I hope I’m the same. I’ve already been trying to do all the tricks to go into labour. Long walks, spicy foods, lots of orgams… I probably started leaking because I’ve been stimulating my nipples so much.”  _

Harry giggles to himself and wonders if he’ll get desperate enough to start trying those things. 

“Tell me which ones work, okay? It’s crazy you’re already that close. It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long since I met you.” 

_ “I know, it really doesn’t feel like a long time. I thought that maybe after both the boys are born I could fly out so they can meet. It would be cute to have pictures of them together growing up.”  _

“That would be really nice,” Harry agreed quickly. “I want them to always feel like siblings. Maybe we can figure out a way to meet up a few times a year to make sure they know each other.” 

_ “I like that idea. It’ll be fun to watch them grow up together and not feel like outcasts since they won’t have a dad around. Imagine we both end up with alphas, _ ” Louis laughed,  _ “Alpha boys and their single omega mothers.”  _

“They’ll grow up to treat their omegas right,” Harry grinned.

_ “Or alphas. You never know.”  _

“You’re right. It won’t matter who they end up with.” 

_ “I was looking at the donor’s profile again the other day. All his siblings were alphas. The guy has some strong alpha sperm in his family apparently.”  _

“I didn’t even consider that when I picked him. You ever wonder if he’s out there thinking about the kids he’s fathered?” 

_ “Going by his rating, he’s fathered a lot. I wonder if he gets notified every time his sperm is used or if they contact him to come in and give more.”  _

“That’s a little weird to think about, don’t you think? Some alpha jerking off in a cup so it can get shot up into some omega.” 

_ “It happened with us. I certainly didn’t let any alpha’s knot near my vagina for this.”  _

“I know. I meant it’s a weird concept when you really think about it. I can’t imagine just not knowing if or how many kids you have out there in the world.” 

_ “I guess I’ve tried not to think about it too much. Apart from him having a half sibling in your baby, at least. I grew up not knowing my father so maybe I look at it a little differently.”  _

“I keep thinking about it from the other side, like if it was me in that position.” 

_ “I think it’s different being O. We are wired to think about the child while alphas can just impregnate and then go about their business. It goes back to pack mentality and all that before monogamy. Mate and go.”  _

Harry laughed and a comfortable silence fell over the line. 

“Louis? Are you scared?” Harry asked softly, “Of birth, I mean.” 

_ “Scared? I wouldn’t say scared. A little nervous. Hearing about it so much growing up there isn’t a lot of unknown for me, but I know it’s going to hurt. I’m nervous about that part and not having a partner there with me. I’m not letting Niall in the room with me and I don’t think my sister would make it in time since she’s working. I’m nervous about going through it alone.”  _

Harry nodded to himself. He felt the same way without having his alpha with him. There wouldn’t be any scent to calm him through it. 

“I think my mom will be with me. I keep changing my mind. I don’t want her there to see all of that, but I don’t want to be alone either. I’m really scared about it. I don’t tolerate pain very well.” 

_ “It’s going to be a lot. I have a doula that will be with me to make sure things go as planned because I know it’s going to be a lot to handle. Have you thought about what you’re doing? Going natural? Epidural?”  _

“I thought about natural because I thought it was better for the baby, but then I was reading that that’s a myth, so I probably will go for the epidural. You?” 

_ “Drugs. Give me all the drugs,”  _ Louis laughed,  _ “Just for pain, though, none of that other stuff. I’ve heard too many stories about horrible labours after being induced. It puts a lot more stress on you and the baby and can make it a lot more painful so I will avoid that at all costs.”  _

“Really?” 

_ “You’ll find people on both sides of the argument. From personal experiences of O’s that I know and stories from my mom, being induced usually brings a more painful and harder labour. Of course it’s different if they need to induce you for some medical reason. Personally, I would never choose that option.”  _

Harry bit his lip. He was always so nervous at his appointments that his blood pressure was always a little high when he was in the office. They’d warned him that they might have to induce if it stayed elevated. Now he was even more nervous about it. Just what he needed. 

“Maybe I should have started thinking about this sooner.”

_ “You have time. Just be prepared. I think that will make it less scary. I am so done with being huge that I want this parasite out! But that doesn’t mean you won’t make it to your due date. You have a while. Are you six weeks out from yours? I’m two weeks from mine and we’re a month apart?” _

“Yeah,” Harry nodded against his pillow. 

_ “Try not to work yourself up about it. The more you stress about it, the worse you’ll think it will be. Make your plan and then just imagine everything going smoothly.”  _

Harry wished it was that easy. 

  
  


\--

_ Fucking finally on my way to the hospital!!!  _

Harry chuckled as he sat at the dinner table finishing the last of his food. Louis had done nothing but complain as his due date slowly came and then passed by with no baby. His constant spicy food had given him heartburn so he’d had to give that strategy up and then he said his belly was too big to make it very far on a walk. That and as soon as he was just far enough from the house, he’d have to pee again. 

Harry had been amused by his struggles and it kept his mind off his own anxieties about his own upcoming experience. Now, nearly two weeks after his due date, Louis was finally in labour. His theory about going early had been incorrect and Harry liked to tell him that he was only late because he had been sure he wouldn’t. 

**Finally!! Updates please!!!**

Harry texted back and then settled in for a night of romcoms with his mom. He’d cut his work hours back with only a few weeks to go for himself and was glad that he wouldn’t have to be up and going so early the next morning in case Louis had news in the middle of the night. He was so excited for his friend and so excited for a big brother for his own baby. 

He fell asleep on the couch and woke up around midnight with no new text messages or missed phone calls. 

**How’s it going?**

He texted as he made his way up the stairs to bed. He was finished with his bedtime routine and out of his clothes by the time he received an answer back. 

_ Stalled Labor! Nothing new. Trying to sleep but too bright and too many noises.  _

**That sucks! Try to get some rest! I’m going to bed but wake me up if you can’t sleep.**

Harry closed his eyes for what he knew would only be a short nap before the baby, his bladder or just his body woke him up again. Each time he did, he checked his phone and found no updates. 

There was still nothing by morning and no response to any of his texts. His mom told him not to worry, that there could be a lot going on that didn’t give him time or energy to text back. Harry couldn’t help but worry. He didn’t know if anyone would let him know if something went wrong. He could only hope that Niall would contact him. 

Nothing could distract Harry when evening came with no word and then sleep wouldn’t come when it was time for bed. Restless fits of half sleep came and went and he was exhausted when the sun finally rose. He didn’t know what to think when he finally broke down and looked up the number for the float center to call Niall and found that they were closed later that afternoon. Something had happened. That was the only explanation. 

Harry was getting ready for bed that night when his phone finally pinged with a message. He fumbled his phone and it clattered to the floor where he stared at it helplessly. His belly was huge so close to his approaching due date and picking anything up from the floor was not an easy task. He kicked it over to the chair pulled up to the desk, using his toes to stand it up vertically against one of the legs. He then sat in the chair and leaned sideways as best as he could, just barely able to get a good grasp on the corner to retrieve it. He would be so happy when he could just bend down again. 

It was worth the trouble to open the message to a tiny scrunched up red face of a newborn with a little white hat pulled down on his forehead. He was sleeping which highlighted his long, dark and curved eyelashes resting gently against his cheeks. Harry let out an audible  _ awww  _ and got teary at the first glimpse of his son’s half brother. 

_ Silas Tomlinson, refusing to enter this world until the very end. Not a good sign for the next 18 years.  _

Harry laughed and wiped the tears from his eyes and immediately called Louis, so relieved that they were both okay. 

_ “That was the worst experience of my life,”  _ Louis said instead of a usual greeting. His voice sounded tired and wrecked and another wave of tears flooded Harry’s eyes. 

“I was so worried when I didn’t hear from you.” 

_ “I was in so much pain and I mean blinding pain. I think I was even hallucinating there for a while.”  _

“Was it really that bad?” 

_ “I don’t want to scare you, but when they say you forget about the pain when they put your baby in your arms? That’s a lie. You’re still in pain AND you have a screaming baby in your arms.” _ Louis’ voice was so rough that it made Harry’s own throat feel uncomfortable.  _ “Don’t get me wrong, I loved him the moment I saw him, but the pain was still there.”  _

Harry spread a hand out on his belly while he took a long breath in. He was not at all ready for birth. 

“What happened to the pain meds?” 

_ “Barely took the edge off, in my opinion. And the first one failed. And now my leg is still numb but I can still feel all the pain between my legs. All of it. Especially the twenty-three stitches.”  _

“Oh my god,” Harry’s eyes went wide. 

_ “I told you it was bad,”  _ Louis sounded so tired, his voice not carrying their usual energy. 

“You can tell me about it later when it isn’t all so fresh,” Harry said, feeling bad he’d called before Louis had probably had much time to rest. “Call me later?” 

  
  


\--

  
  


With the daily picture and video updates from Louis and Silas, the last weeks of Harry’s pregnancy flew by. He was so distracted that he didn’t even notice when the first signs of labour started to appear. 

It was only two weeks later when he couldn’t sit still because of a persistent ache in his back, groaning as he moved from one chair to the next until his mom ordered him over so she could try to massage away the pain. When he stood up, however, he felt wet between his legs and looked down to see he had left a dark spot beneath him on the chair. He stared at it for a long moment before things started to click into place. 

“I think my water broke?” he said in confusion as he turned to look at his mom. 

“I’ll grab the bag!” she said, popping up from the sofa. 

“I think I’m going to shower first!” he called after her and started for the stairs. With several days off in a row, he hadn’t bothered to shower and didn’t want to feel gross from the start in case he was stuck in the hospital for a while. It had also been days for Louis so he figured he had plenty of time to shower. Plus, he could barely feel his contractions. 

With braxton-hicks coming and going for him, he hadn’t even noticed the subtle ones that he now realized had been coming regularly throughout the evening. 

He took his time letting the warm water run over his skin. It was a soothing temperature and it felt nice to be clean. His cheeks were a rosy shade when he finally stepped out and toweled off. 

His mom was ready and waiting when he finally came downstairs in his favourite comfy clothes and snuggled himself into the car on their ride to the hospital. 

“You’re awfully calm,” his mom commented and he just shrugged. Harry did feel calm. A little uncomfortable, but calm. 

They got him set up and ready, waiting for the doctor that was on call. It was only then that the contractions started to get painful. No one warned him how strongly he would feel them in his back, his instinct to shift around for a more comfortable position that he couldn’t find. There was so much pressure that he also couldn’t relieve as he moved, surely a prelude to the pain Louis had warned him about. He was ready for his epidural as soon as possible. 

He told the doctor that as soon as she entered the room. She just laughed and set him up to check on his progression. She wasn’t his usual doctor, but he’d at least seen her before when he’d gone to his appointments. 

“I think you’re a little late for an epidural,” she said from between his legs, “You’re ready to start pushing!” 

“What??” Harry asked in shock as everything stuttered to a halt for a moment. “How? I just got here??” 

A lot of activity started happening around him and he stared at the doctor who just gave a little laugh. 

“Can’t you just do one really fast?” Harry asked, voice high and squeaky. 

“I think you’ll have a baby before the anesthesiologist can make it,” the doctor said kindly but with a laugh, “Omegas have been doing this for thousands of years without epidurals, you’ll be okay.” 

Harry would remember everything that came after in a blurry haze, everything happening around him while he was stuck in slow motion. The pressure wasn’t just his contractions, that was his baby coming.  _ His baby was coming.  _

His mom was at his side coaching him along but Harry didn’t register her words. It was painful, sensations he’d never be able to describe as his body literally changed to accommodate the birth of a human. 

It felt like only minutes later that it was over and the grossest, slime and blood covered but also the most beautiful thing Harry had ever seen was being put on his chest, a flood of tears taking over everything he’d just gone through. 

Louis was right. It was still painful but at least he was distracted. 

“Little Laurie,” Harry whispered wetly as he welcomed Laurence Styles into the world. 

  
  


\--

  
  


From breastfeeding to first smiles to nasty diapers, the two omegas continued their bond over the little newborns that were half brothers. Baby Silas was six weeks old when he took his first trip across the country to Illinois. The boys were only two weeks apart in age and almost exactly the same size when the omegas laid them next to each other for their first sibling picture. 

Louis stayed for a week while they got to know each other in person, their connection only made stronger once the distance was no longer keeping them apart. 

Harry and Laurie made the trip out to Colorado when the boys were nine months old. Harry was finally able to meet Niall and see what their float center was all about. He left the state with a more positive outlook on life and his situation, knowing that even if he felt lonely without the alpha he’d always planned to be a parent with, he would never truly be alone with Louis on his side. 

They made it a point to meet up every six months, sometimes meeting in the middle in Nebraska so the trip wasn’t quite as far for either of them. It was important to them that the boys grew up together, even if most of that time ended up being long distance. 

As the boys got a little older, they started planning vacations together to Disney World or somewhere on the beach or any other place they wanted to experience. 

The boys were two when it came time for Harry to have the surgery that had led to his unconventional road to parenthood. Louis flew in to stay with Laurie and then to help out while Harry recovered. It was a dark time for Harry and Louis never once told him to look on the bright side or any of the other optimistic things nobody wants to hear at a time like that. Instead he sat with Harry as he cried and worked through the complex emotions that came with losing the ability to carry his own children. He was thankful for Laurie, but didn’t take away his sadness that he would never carry another. 

The closer they became, the more thankful Harry was that Louis and Silas were a part of their lives. It was a friendship Harry would never take for granted. 

  
  
  
  



	2. Part Two

Laurie jumped out of the car and shot into the house as soon as Harry shifted into park. He rolled his eyes and sighed, knowing the faint sound of his son’s video games would be echoing down the stairs by the time he made it inside. Laurie was a good kid, but he was still a kid which meant Harry would be carrying the groceries in by himself yet again. It would annoy him more if he didn’t so vividly remember being that age himself and how quickly those days had passed. He’d let Laurie be a kid for as long as he could. 

With his arms full, Harry nearly fell over as he tried to kick off his shoes, swearing as he looked down to where his feet were tangled up in clothes that most definitely weren’t his own. 

“Laurence Samuel!! Come pick up your uniform and put it in the laundry room like I told you to last night!” Harry yelled up the stairs after kicking the grass stained pants to the side. Being a kid wasn’t an excuse to abandon all responsibilities. 

He heard the pounding of feet on the stairs and was glad he didn’t have to tell him twice. 

His phone started ringing just as Laurie brushed past him through the kitchen to deposit his clothes in the laundry room. Harry caught him on the way past, pressing a kiss to his curly head with a soft “thank you” before fishing his phone from his pocket. 

“Hey Lou,” he greeted as he started to put the groceries away from the bags he’d set down on the counter. 

_ “Hey!” _ Louis answered brightly,  _ “I just got the email that our tests are done!”  _

Throughout the boys’ lives, neither of them had beaten around the bush about who their father was. It was the leading role in their relationship after all. Ultimately it would be up to the kids, but they’d already promised each other that when they turned eighteen, they’d search for their birth father together. Both Harry and Louis were supportive of whatever they decided to do and, after months of discussions, they decided that researching their roots was an age appropriate way to start the search. 

All four of them had done a DNA heritage test and would leave the DNA relatives section closed until the boys were of age. That part was in the contract of the sperm bank and neither of them had any particular interest in finding their anonymous father themselves. 

Harry and Laurie had received their results a few days before but hadn’t looked too closely as they waited for Louis and Silas’ to come in. 

“Oh yay!! Pull them up! I’ll get my laptop out as soon as I get all the groceries put away.”

They’d already shared their data with each other so it was just a matter of looking at the results and Harry was excited to see what they would turn up. Harry’s own had seemed a little boring, but Laurie’s little graph looked a lot more colourful on first glance. 

“Wouldn’t that be funny if the two of us were related too?” Harry asked with a laugh as Louis cussed out the website for not being easy enough to navigate, “Then they would be more than just half siblings!” 

_ “I think that’s highly unlikely,” _ Louis said with a huff. 

“But you have family in Illinois! You never know!” 

_ “Most of my family isn’t actually from Illinois, though.”  _

“Most of mine probably isn’t either.” 

_ “So this thing is guessing that I’m one of Silas’ parents, so that’s good,” _ Louis said with a small laugh. 

“I should hope so!” Harry giggled as he put the jug of orange juice into the fridge. 

_ “No connection for us though, sorry.”  _

“You’ve crushed my dreams!!” Harry said dramatically, unable to keep a straight face. 

_ “And the boys are…”  _

Harry waited as a long pause stretched out too long for the reveal they both knew was coming. 

“We already know they’re half siblings, what else is there for it to identify?” 

_ “They’re not related.”  _

Harry rolled his eyes, but gave props to Louis for his unwavering delivery. 

“Not funny,” Harry laughed, picking up a jar of pickles to put into the cupboard. 

_ “Harry, they’re not related. I’m being serious.”  _

Harry spoke on the phone with Louis enough to know when he was being playful and this was not it. The jar of pickles slipped out of his hand and exploded onto the floor as his face fell. 

“What?” 

_ “They’re not related. There’s nothing matching just like yours and mine are.”  _

“That can’t be right. Maybe the results aren’t fully loaded yet or something.” 

Harry turned in the opposite direction of the smashed glass and went directly to his laptop to sign in himself. 

_ “I don’t think that’s how it works,”  _ Louis was saying but it became a distant sound as tunnel vision set in. 

His username and password were saved so it only took a few clicks to get into the website and then a few more to pull up the connection for himself. He stared at the connection between the two boys with his heart thudding and saw the same thing that Louis was seeing. 

“What the fuck?” Harry murmured to himself and refreshed just to be sure it wasn’t an error. 

_ “We compared the donor profile right? And the number?”  _

“We’ve talked about this a million times! It’s the same alpha! We chose the same alpha!” 

Harry went to his bookshelf to pull out the decorative box he kept important documents in. At the bottom was the printed out profile from the sperm bank website, the description of the alpha he picked to be his son’s father. He could tell Louis was doing the same as they scrambled to make sense of the information, mumbling to themselves as they compared the paper to the screen. 

_ “I don’t know how to tell? These results are mostly European but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything?”  _ Louis was saying and Harry didn’t know how he would be able to tell either. 

“I want to look at my records from the clinic,” Harry declared, an uneasy feeling settling over him. “This isn’t right. We chose the same alpha!” 

_ “Maybe the DNA place made a mistake?”  _ Louis grasped for another explanation,  _ “Maybe the mixed up the results?”  _

“I’m calling the clinic,” Harry said as his anxiety started bubbling into anger. “I want to see my records.” 

_ “I’ll call mine too,”  _ Louis agreed and they both went to make their calls. 

As it turned out, accessing his own records was more difficult than he could have imagined. Since they were his, he assumed he’d be able to see them whenever he wanted to, but that was not the case. It was weeks later when he was finally granted permission and went into the office with shaking hands holding his own documentation he’d kept for the last decade. 

“C574. That’s the donor number I chose,” Harry said with the documentation laid out on the woman’s desk. 

“Yes, I see that right here,” she nodded, looking at her screen. “But it says that donor vial wasn’t available so a fresh sample was provided day of instead.”

“Excuse me?” Harry’s eyebrows raised in disbelief, “A fresh sample? What does that mean? You called the guy in for a fresh supply?” 

“No, of course not. That means the client provided their own donor.” 

Her bubbly but fake smile was really starting to irritate Harry. This was serious. It affected lives. It wasn’t something to laugh about. 

“The client provided their own donor? The client? As in me?” Harry asked incredulously. 

“Yes, of course!” she said happily, “You brought your alpha’s sample to us.” 

“But I didn’t,” Harry said firmly. 

“That’s silly of you to forget such a big detail from the day!” she laughed it off. Harry clenched his fists. 

“Because I didn’t? I don’t have an alpha and didn’t have an alpha then. Hence the sperm bank. I picked out donor C574 who I assumed had fathered my child.” 

Her expression only dropped a little with Harry’s anger. 

“I’m sure it’s just a mistake in records then,” she gave him a fake laugh, waving it off like nothing. “Let me take a look.” 

“It must not be a mistake in records since my son has a half brother that we just found out is not related to him at all so I really need to know whose sperm I was inseminated with!!” 

Harry couldn’t help it as he slammed his fist down on the desk, his voice rising in volume in a way it never did. It took a lot to push Harry to his breaking point and this was apparently what kicked him over the edge. He only felt a little guilty when the girl in front of him shrank back in her seat. 

“I’m afraid I can’t share any additional information with you, Mr. Styles.” 

Harry was seeing red by the time she addressed him formally. 

“Then you’ll be hearing from my lawyer.” 

Harry didn’t have a lawyer, but he would shortly after he stormed out of the building. Of all the anxieties he had, being inseminated with an unknown donor had never been one of them. Sure C574 was a stranger, but he was the stranger Harry had picked. He was the stranger that connected him to Louis, the stranger that gave his son a brother. Everything felt like it was slipping through his fingers like ash in the wind. 

On his way out the door, a nurse slipped him a card and then kept walking like they had only bumped into each other. He stared after her for a moment and only looked at the card once he was standing on the sidewalk. The business card belonged to a lawyer. 

  
  
  


\--

  
  
  


Harry’s first visit to the lawyer was just a day later. In the first phone call, the man seemed eager to get started and Harry was eager for answers. Louis had encouraged him to make the appointment and was almost more outraged than Harry was over what little knowledge they now had. 

“I’m glad you came to me,” the alpha lawyer who went by Greg said as he sat behind his desk, “I am currently in the fact finding stage with seventeen omegas in a position similar to yours and we suspect there are more out there that are not yet aware they are a victim of this scheme.”

Harry folded his hands in his lap and bit the inside of his lip nervously, unsure of what he was going to be told. 

“As you told me yesterday, you did not receive the sperm donor you chose and paid for, is that correct?” Harry nodded. “We have evidence and reason to believe that an alpha doctor within the clinic has been purposefully switching donor sperm with his own when inseminating omegas.” 

Harry stared at his lawyer in shock. Doctors were supposed to be trustworthy. Doctors at that clinic had seen every intimate part of his body. He suddenly felt so violated in so many ways. 

“To prove that you were also a victim of this switch, you and your son will have to submit to a DNA test. Are you willing to do that?” Harry nodded, body feeling numb. “I will take your case with nothing due up front. I’ll arrange to have the tests done and then we can go from there. How does that sound?” 

The rest of the meeting passed in a blur of details Harry was sure he would have to ask about later. There was so much to process and he didn’t even know where to start. 

So he started where he often did and called Louis. 

And there, sitting in the parking lot in his car, Harry lost it. Sobs racked his body, hardly able to form any words.

_ “We’re on our way, okay? Don’t drive home until you calm down a little, but we’re coming.”  _

That didn’t fully register to Harry until there was a knock on his front door later that evening. He pulled the door open to find Louis and Silas standing on his sunflower welcome mat and the only thing he could do was laugh through a sob that overtook him. He’d done so well keeping everything in to not alarm Laurie even though he knew something was wrong. All the cold water in the world couldn’t remove the puffiness around his eyes and the red rims that wouldn’t go away. 

“Go find Laurie,” Louis said to Silas, “Take your suitcase and don’t stay up too late.” 

Louis then gathered Harry up in his arms and steered him towards his bedroom. Harry was thankful so he didn’t have to have his breakdown right there on the couch. It felt too exposed to be out in the open even if it was his own house. He needed the closed door and dim light and his blankets and pillows to snuggle into. 

Louis let him cry until his sobs slowly subsided into hiccups, holding him close and rubbing his back the whole time. He didn’t know how long it had been but the last light of evening had faded into darkness so he guessed it had been hours. 

“So tell me what happened at the lawyers,” Louis asked softly once Harry had mostly gotten himself under control. Louis’ fingers were gently combing through Harry’s shaggy hair reminding him of how much he had been craving physical touch. Laurie was going through a phase where he didn’t want to cuddle with his ommie anymore but even that had never been enough for what Harry truly needed. 

“He’s representing a bunch of patients from the clinic,” Harry started, his breathing mostly even. “An alpha doctor has been switching out donor sperm for his own and he suspects that’s what happened with me. We have to go in for a DNA test to be sure.” 

Louis reacted in shock. “A doctor???” 

Harry nodded. He’d read the material the lawyer had given him once he was back home and couldn’t believe it himself. 

“He was accused of doing inappropriate things to omegas at a clinic in another state and then just moved here. It’s probably some alpha power trip thing, some god complex. It makes me feel so gross to think about it. I know it was already a stranger’s sperm… but It was a stranger I picked out. For all I know the doctor jerked off into a cup minutes before they shot it into me.” 

Harry shuddered and pressed his face against Louis’ chest. He smelled so nice and reminded him of happier times, of less stressful times. It wasn’t the first time they’d been curled up in bed together. They often shared a hotel room when they went on vacation, sharing a bed when the boys wanted to spend more of their time together. It was familiar to Harry. It was calming. 

“I can’t believe it. I guess that’s why they didn’t hand over your records so easily if they knew these other lawsuits were pending.” 

“Yeah, I guess so. I still haven’t been able to see my records, only what that girl read to me off her computer screen. I keep trying to remember what that doctor looked like. It wasn’t my regular doctor that did it on that day but that’s when I was ovulating or I was going to have to wait another cycle. At the very least I want a refund for the sperm I paid for since I never got it,” Harry let out a wet laugh and then sniffed, trying to stop himself from dissolving into sobs again. “And the worst part is that Laurie doesn’t have the brother he thought he had.” 

“He still has a brother,” Louis said softly, “Doesn’t matter anymore if it’s not biological. Does he know?” 

Harry shook his head. “I couldn’t tell him. Not until I knew more and had answers to give him. Does Silas?”

“No. He knows something is up, but he doesn’t know what. I think he was getting worried so I told him nobody was dying and nobody is sick.” 

Harry nodded and snuggles in closer to Louis’ warmth and scent. It was comforting and familiar and he wanted to cling to it for as long as he could. 

“No matter what, you’ll always have us, okay? Laurie still has a brother and you still have me. We’ve grown too close to give you up over something that doesn’t really matter that much. We’re still our odd little family.” 

Louis pressed a kiss against Harry’s forehead, his lips warm and soft against his skin. It was a lingering kiss, one that held long enough for Harry to feel the emotion behind it. He pulled back just enough to meet Louis’ eyes, his gentle and genuine beautiful blue eyes, and they just stared at each other for a minute that stretched the limits of time like everything had that night. 

He didn’t know why he did it, but he leaned forward to place a kiss on the tip of Louis’ nose. It just seemed like the thing to do when their faces were just inches apart and they were exchanging physical displays of affection. But then Harry leaned in again to press a kiss to Louis’ cheek and then another at the corner of his mouth. It happened so slowly and organically that Harry didn’t even register that they were caught up in a slow tangle of lips until it started to get more heated and urgent. 

Kissing Louis was so good that he refused to stop and think about it. His lips were gentle but insistent, moist but not sloppy. It had been so close to a decade ago when Harry had had his last kiss and that had ended in disaster. It was the middle of the night when Harry called Louis after the most humiliating moment of his dating life when Laurie was barely a year old. It was his first attempt at dating with a baby at home and things had gone well in Harry’s opinion. Sitting in the car outside Harry’s house sharing a heated kiss, Harry was almost ready to offer himself up in the backseat when the alpha suddenly jerked away and stared down at Harry’s chest with a look of confused disgust. When he looked down, Harry blushed and wanted to shrink away as he saw the large wet spots that had darkened the front of his shirt. Laurie was still breastfeeding at bedtime and that combined with being so turned on had turned on the water works, his milk leaking out even past his padded bra. 

“I, uh… think I need to get going,” the alpha had said, nearly pushing Harry from his car. He never heard from the alpha again and never again attempted to date. 

None of that insecurity made him hesitate when it was only Louis on the other side of the kiss. Louis who never judged him and was always supportive even though he’d been there through all of Harry’s worst moments. And it went both ways, too. Harry never had a reason to judge Louis for what he did. And they were both omegas who had given birth. There weren’t any surprises when they’d been so open with each other through it all. It was safe. It was the contact he needed. 

Louis’ scent was everywhere around him and deeper than usual. Harry found himself needing to get closer to it, needing to bathe himself in it. He slid his hands up Louis’ tshirt and pulled away only long enough for him to struggle out of it. Harry’s came off next and their skin was warm as their chests came together. 

Louis’ lips traveled down Harry’s neck until it came to his bonding point, sucking and licking the spot until Harry was moaning under the attention. It had been so long that Harry lost himself to the feeling, tilting his neck for Louis to have more access to the sensitive spot. 

It was Louis and that fact still didn’t stop him from moaning when he felt the omega’s erection hard against his thigh. Instead, it just made him wet, craving whatever his best friend was willing to give him. 

“Lou, please,” Harry begged as he pulled Louis top of his body. 

“Harry…” 

Harry wiggled out of his pants as he stared up at Louis, his full body spread out for the other omega to take. It was sudden and spontaneous and Harry just wanted to feel. A decade was a long time, a fact that hadn’t seemed so intense until things were already happening. 

“It’s just sex,” Harry whispered, “Just an outlet.” 

Louis smirked and kicked off his own pants, glancing down between them before lowering himself until their hips were pressed together. Their hard dicks touched and Harry moaned, suddenly glad his bedroom was on the main level and not in the room across from where their sons currently were. 

Louis rocked their hips together while his lips traveled down Harry’s neck and down the center of his chest. There was a moment when Harry tensed as Louis kissed across to his left nipple, his hand poised to push him away. 

“Lou…” Harry warned before Louis latched onto his pebbled nipple and sucked. He swore as his chest surged up into the feeling, his nipples more sensitive than he even remembered them being. 

“That’s still a thing, huh?” Louis asked as he pulled back just enough to grin and flick his eyes up to Harry’s. That was what Harry was worried about and another reason he’d kept himself out of the dating pool. 

Things after his surgery had been complicated. His mental state had declined and other issues had started popping up until he finally found a doctor that would listen to him. A cocktail of medications was the only way to keep his hormone levels balanced so he could feel normal, but it wasn’t without mild side effects. Galactorrhea was one of those side effects. It usually wasn’t very noticeable, but he could usually get more than just a few drops if he squeezed like in the days and weeks after he’d weaned Laurie. He assumed that’s what Louis had just discovered. 

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Harry blushed and made a move to cover his breasts with his hands. 

“No, stop,” Louis pulled at his wrists, “It’s kinda hot.” 

Louis grinned as Harry bit his lip. He’d expected a response like the alpha from the car. But it was Louis who already knew how and why Harry’s body was the way it was. 

“I kind of developed a thing for it,” Louis admitted, kissing over the back of Harry’s hand where he still covered his nipples. He could feel the wet drops now pressed under his palms and hoped Louis wasn’t just being nice. 

“Maybe another time,” Harry said softly, not quite ready to open himself up like that. 

“Another time?” Louis raised a brow as he kissed down Harry’s stomach, just the expression making Harry’s stomach flutter. 

Harry groaned and tipped his head back when Louis’ mouth covered his cock. It had been so long that Harry couldn’t even remember the last time he’d had someone’s mouth. It hadn’t been the last alpha he’d been with who didn’t want anything to do with Harry’s dick most of the time. 

“Fuck, I’m so wet,” Harry moaned as he squeezed his own nipples, the little jolts making his breath hitch. 

“Yeah you are,” Louis kissed down his shaft and then along the sensitive juncture of his thigh. He gasped when Louis just dove in without any other warning, his lips and tongue doing things to him that he’d never experienced before. It wasn’t that he hadn’t been eaten out before, but apparently all the alphas he’d been with had been doing it wrong. If he would have known how good OLOs were at giving omegas head, he would have thought about giving them a shot years ago. 

He breathed heavily and pulled at his own hair, moaning as his hips rose to meet each circle of his tongue and suck of his lips. He even reached down to pull his balls out of the way as he begged for Louis to keep going. 

He pushed Harry all the way to the very edge before pulling back, kissing a line back up his chest until he arrived at his mouth. He could smell and taste himself on Louis’ face, but he couldn’t be bothered to care when he felt so fucking good. 

“Condoms?” Louis asked after a long, sloppy kiss. 

“I haven’t even thought about dating in years, of course I don’t have condoms,” Harry frowned. 

“Birth control?” Louis mumbled against his lips next. 

“Don’t have the parts,” Harry reminded him with a small laugh. 

“Oh yeah. I haven’t been with anyone since my last check up.” 

Louis’ hand slid over Harry’s thigh and then up between them. His fingers slid into him easily, Harry’s eyes rolling back as he arched off the bed. 

“Fuck,” Harry gasped as he tried to ride Louis’ fingers. He forgot how good it felt to be penetrated by someone else. His fingers never found the right angle and dildos just weren’t the same. 

“Please,” he begged again, wanting everything, wanting to  _ feel _ . 

He reached up to Louis’ biceps and gave him a tug to move closer, wanting Louis’ body flush with his own. Spreading his thighs further to make room, Harry wrapped his legs around Louis’ waist and hooked his ankles around his back. The need was urgent now and his heart hammered away in anticipation. 

It was different than the alphas Harry had been with. The aggressive dirty talk and hyper masculinity was absent which was honestly a nice change of pace from the alphas he used to date. It was also exactly what he needed in that moment. This wasn’t about letting some alpha dominate him. This was softer, this felt like  _ more _ . 

For some reason in Harry’s mind, he’d always wondered how OLOs found satisfaction without a knot. It sounded lackluster and anticlimactic to him to think of OLO sex. He was open minded about different sexual orientations, but when it came to sex, he always had a “to each their own” mentality. 

It only took one thrust from Louis for him to change his mind. He didn’t have all the tools of an alpha, but he knew how to use what he had better than anyone Harry had ever been with. He was hit with a sexual identity crisis as he was reduced to a moaning mess of pleasure. Louis’ hand found Harry’s dick, his strokes matching the pace of his hips as the angle of his cock hit its mark every time. Harry’s thighs were quivering with the intensity of it. He’d never been fucked so good in his life. 

He wanted to make excuses that it was only so good since it had been so long, but he knew that wasn’t the case. Maybe it just took an omega to know how to pleasure an omega. 

His orgasm built like a tsunami. He could see the massive wave approaching but was still unprepared when it finally slammed into him. He heard himself crying out and Louis’ grunts, all of it seeming like an out of body experience as his eyes rolled back and came all over his stomach while his cunt clenched like a vice around Louis’ cock before contracting in rhythmic pulses. He didn’t think he’d ever come both ways at the same time before, especially not with a partner. 

Unlike with an alpha’s knot, Louis was able to pull out and clean up Harry’s stomach before snuggling up against him. That was also a welcome change. He never liked dealing with an alpha’s weight on top of him as he came down from an orgasm. 

“Holy shit. Needed that,” Harry mumbled as he pushed his fingers through his sweat dampened hair. He felt so boneless and loose, his mind successfully distracted from the events of the day. 

“Great stress reliever,” Louis agreed with his cheek resting on Harry’s chest. 

“Sorry if I… if I started all of that,” Harry said softly after a few minutes. 

“Maybe we should have been friends with benefits this whole time,” Louis said with a small chuckle, a finger tracking along the faint lines of Harry’s abs. 

“Yeah, maybe so,” Harry said softly as he stared up at the ceiling imagining all the moments they’d shared that could have involved sex. It wasn’t a repelling thought. 

“I just never thought you were OLO.” 

The vulnerability in Louis’ voice was uncharacteristic and his face was hidden from view from their position. That didn’t stop Harry from blurting out, “I’m not.” 

Louis visibly tensed, but Harry didn’t let the moment get worse. 

“I mean I wasn’t. Or I didn’t think I was. I don’t know.” 

“It’s fine that you’re not, Harry.” Louis slowly sat up and faced away from him. “I’m going to go check on the boys.” 

Harry watched as he pulled on his tshirt and pants and left the room while Harry fish mouthed for something to say. 

Louis had been to Harry’s duplex many times since they’d moved in when Laurie was a toddler. It felt so domestic for Louis to freely move around, not having to question where things were at or where the kids would be. They’d been so close for so long that Harry had never even thought to imagine them as more than friends. They were in a unique co-parenting relationship and in retrospect, Harry wondered why it had never entered his mind. Thinking about Louis’ comments, he began to wonder if Louis ever had. 

“Boys are fine. Still playing video games. I told them not to stay up too late,” Louis said as he returned and sat on the edge of the bed. 

“Have you thought about us having sex before?” Harry blurted out. He was never very good at holding things in and when he was already naked on the bed, it felt like he wasn’t really in a place to hide. 

“Harry…” Louis sighed. “I don’t care if you’re not OLO. The sex was good and it doesn’t have to be weird. We’re both adults that can handle it.” 

“Have you?” Harry pushed, his heart picking up speed as he waited. 

“I’m not blind. Yeah I thought you were attractive when we met,” Louis shrugged, “But being OLO doesn’t mean that I’m thinking about having sex with every omega I meet.” 

“But have you thought about it with me?” 

The air felt heavy in the room and he wasn’t sure if he wanted Louis to say yes or no. Either answer would mean so much more to him now that the idea was planted. 

“You want me to be honest?” Harry nodded. “A few times. It wasn’t a big deal or anything. I didn’t try to sneak peeks of you naked or anything creepy like that so you don’t have to worry.” 

“I’m not worried. I  _ let _ you see me naked. It never bothered me whether you were OLO or not.” 

Harry never cared. It made him self conscious to go to doctor’s appointments where they looked closely at his intimate parts, but changing in front of friends had never been a big deal. It naturally happened when there were four people sharing a hotel room, especially when two of them were small children. 

“It doesn’t have to be weird,” Louis said again. 

“I just never thought about it before. I don’t think I’ve even thought about sex or dating, like I just turned that part of my mind off. I think I might be OLO. At least a little? It didn’t make me want to stop just because you’re an omega too.” 

“Um, thanks?” Louis shifted where he sat. 

“How long are you staying?”

Louis started to pick at a loose thread on his comforter. “I didn’t buy return tickets since it was so last minute, but I figured a week or so? Niall said he’d handle things and since school is out… We can go whenever you want us too.” 

“No, I don’t want you to go,” Harry said softly, “I just thought maybe… Can we do that again? Sometime before you go? Only if you want to, of course.” 

“Sure,” Louis nodded, noticeably more comfortable as his shoulders relaxed. 

“It was really good for me, at least.” 

Louis looked up at him from under his lashes with a grin, “I told you once that I’d never had a complaint.” 

“I remember,” Harry couldn’t help but grin back. 

“You’re still naked.” 

“And you’re not.” 

“What do we tell the kids?” 

“That it’s none of their business.” 

Louis laughed as he pulled his shirt over his head, coming to lie down next to Harry again with his head propped up on one hand. 

“I’ve always told you knots are messy and over rated.” 

“Yeah, you really have.” 

It was still a restless night for Harry when they finally settled in to sleep, but he felt a little better not suffering through it alone. 

They were able to stop by the clinic after breakfast for the quick DNA swabs for the case, Harry still not sure he should tell Laurie what was really going on until he had more information. He didn’t want to upset him for nothing if they turned out to not be victims of the alpha doctor’s crimes. 

They instead treated the day like any other visit. They went out for lunch and then popped over to Harry’s mom’s for a bit. She also wasn’t aware of what was going on and Harry felt a little guilty for not telling her. It was nice that she didn’t know so he didn’t have to worry about her slipping up when she offered to take the boys out to a movie and then on to Laurie’s baseball practice. His mom had been such a vital part of their lives and Harry didn’t know what he would have done without her. He still appreciated every time she volunteered to help, even if it was just to spend time with her grandson. 

“Sorry we don’t have a bunch of activities planned,” Harry apologized as they drove back towards his duplex. 

“Harry, it’s fine. This was last minute and we came here for moral support, not to be entertained.” 

“I keep thinking that I should just be raging over everything, but every time I start to think about it… I just don’t want to deal with it yet.” 

“You don’t have to yet. It could have been an innocent mixup. That doesn’t make it any better, but does make it less… less violating? Less intentional? There will be plenty of time to be angry and deal with it. We can just watch a movie or something to take your mind off it for now.” 

Harry pulled into the driveway and nodded as he killed the engine. 

“That would be nice. Or we could open a bottle of wine and head to the bedroom?” 

Harry could tell that Louis hadn’t expected him to say that and he grinned when it took a second for his request to sink in. It hadn’t been Harry’s intention to come home and proposition his friend, yet here they were. After a day of letting his looks linger just a few seconds longer than he normally would, thoughts from the night before were working their way into every thought like an invasive vine. 

In the back of Harry’s mind, he always thought he’d wait until Laurie was off at college to find himself a nice divorced alpha that didn’t mind that Harry couldn’t give him his own children. He could find a nice steady partner that was content to stay home with him in the evenings watching crappy reality television instead of going out all the time. He’d only be in his early forties, still young enough to enjoy a healthy sex life he’d missed through his twenties. He thought of his mom who had met his stepdad and settled happily into their steady routines. Harry would find an alpha like that. 

And then he’d broken a decade long stretch of abstinence with his closest friend and now his world was slowly tipping in another direction. Louis wasn’t just his closest friend when he really thought about their relationship. It was his first instinct to call Louis about almost anything that happened in his daily life. What was at first just a relationship about pregnancy and parenting support had grown into a permanent extension of what he considered his family unit. They raised the boys as brothers and now that he was thinking about it from a different perspective, they existed more as a married couple just separated by distance. 

When baseball schedules came out, Harry called Louis to consult about which team schedule would work best for them. When the school wanted to place Laurie in an advanced class, it was Louis that Harry had called to weigh the pros and cons of such a program. Louis was even involved while he was shopping for a new vehicle. They really were practically married. 

Harry had just never thought of it like that. It took an emotional crisis fueled moment of passion to force Harry outside of himself and now he knew he could never get back into that oblivious state of mind. He’d never see them the same way and he wasn’t sure that was even a bad thing. 

But it also piqued his curiosity and he’d been low key horny since he woke up naked in Louis’ arms that morning. If they couldn’t go back to how they were before, Harry figured he might as well let himself explore whatever new doors had been opened when Louis made him come harder than any alpha ever had before. It felt like a pivotal moment. 

Louis quirked a brow. “Yeah?” 

They didn’t make it to the kitchen for the bottle of wine as they stumbled through the front door with their hands on each other. Harry could hardly contain himself as if he’d only just lost his virginity and finally found out how good sex was with another person. Louis was just as willing, most of his clothes ending up in a trail to Harry’s bedroom. 

Harry’s back twinged as he bounced onto his mattress, forgetting for a moment that he wasn’t actually a teenager. He didn’t have long to focus on the pain as Louis straddled his hips and gently cupped Harry’s chin to direct him into a kiss. 

The kisses with Louis were still new, but what he was feeling where the rest of their bodies touched was something Harry had never experienced before. With Harry’s hard dick pinned against his stomach, Louis had shuffled forward until he was in a position to coat the underside of Harry’s dick with his slick. The slide was warm and wet and Harry moaned against Louis’ mouth. 

Alphas didn’t get slick and most didn’t want much to do with his dick. Louis seemed very into both and Harry was easily on board with it. He was getting extremely wet himself and wished he would have pulled back his comforter before they started to avoid such a mess. They were too far along to save it now. 

“Want you,” Louis murmured against Harry’s lips and slid up until the head of Harry’s cock was nestled right against Louis’ wet entrance. Harry’s breath caught when he realized what that meant. His eyes flew open. 

“I’ve never done that,” Harry breathed out, his hands grasping at Louis’ hips. 

“Never pegged an alpha?” Louis asked with a smirk. Harry shook his head. 

Reaching down between them, Louis gave Harry a moment to protest before teasing himself with the head of Harry’s dick in a circle. It felt so good and so foreign that Harry could just lie there and bite his lip as he watched himself sink into Louis’ body. The warmth surrounded him slowly until Louis was fully seated in his lap.

“Shit that’s good,” Louis moaned with his hands bracing himself against Harry’s stomach. It might be good for Louis, but it was overwhelming for Harry. He felt powerful being the one inside Louis’ body even if he was technically on the bottom. His fingers pressed into the meat of Louis’ hips, his hips instinctually wanting to buck up into him. 

“Yeah, just go with it,” Louis mumbled as he started to move his hips in little figure eights and Harry already felt like he was going to come. Yeah, he was definitely OLO. No question in his mind now that it had been unleashed.

He could tell that Louis was taking his time enjoying the pleasure, Harry had been in his place many times before, but Harry was too sensitive to the wet heat, too close to hold himself back. 

He groaned and his hips moved on their own for friction, coming deep inside the other omega without much warning at all. 

“Fuck, sorry,” Harry grunted through his orgasm, fingers surely leaving bruises.

“It’s fine,” Louis breathed and took his own dick in hand, circling his hips as he jerked himself off over Harry’s torso. “A decade is a long time. I don’t blame you.” 

“Yeah, it’s a long time, but I’ve never done that before.” 

“Feels good doesn’t it?” Louis smirked and carefully climbed off his lap. 

“Yeah it does,” Harry rolled onto his side to look at his phone, “What time did they say they’d be back?” 

“We have time,” Louis answered as he went to the linen closet in Harry’s master bath for a cloth to clean them off. 

Harry wiped himself off and then slipped under the covers, relaxing back against the pillows as Louis followed. 

“Still not OLO?” Louis asked with a playful smirk. 

Harry grinned as his cheeks grew warm. “I think it’s pretty obvious I’m at least somewhat OLO.” 

Louis propped his head up on his hand as he had the night before and looked down at Harry, a fond smile on his face. 

“There’s a lot to love and more options than with some alpha,” Louis wrinkled his nose, “Alphas are such assholes – except our sons. We’re raising them to be good alphas. The rest of them… like that doctor…” 

A crease formed between Harry’s brows. “They said we’d have the results in a few days. I have a feeling it’s going to be true. I don’t know how I’m going to break it to Laurie. He doesn’t talk about it, but I can tell he has emotion wrapped up in not knowing who his dad is. I think it hasn’t been a big issue yet knowing he was going to find him with Silas. But now…” 

Harry trailed off with a sigh. He worried about his son so much even if he appeared to be a happy kid. Having his own issues to deal with after conceiving him with a sperm donor, Harry hoped he hadn’t transferred any of that off on Laurie without meaning to. Or maybe Harry had just read too many books about adopted children having that pull to know their birth parents and other donor babies wanting to know. 

“You’ll figure out a way. I don’t think there is a right way in this situation. We can talk to the boys together too since Silas is going to have a lot of questions.” 

“Just think. I may never have found out if I hadn’t met you. I’d just be going on with my life with no reason to question a thing.”

“It might have been worse. The news will probably cover this if it goes to trial and then you’d have to see it on TV and start wondering. At least now you’re finding out on your own terms. It gives you a little power in the situation at least.” 

Harry nodded. There were small silver linings. If it was going to happen to him, he was glad it was happening the way it was and not in the middle of a media storm. 

“Do you think it will get a lot of publicity? I don’t want to put Laurie through something like that.” 

Louis reached up and trailed his finger down over Harry’s temple before tucking a stray curl behind his ear. “He’s a minor so I think you’ll be able to keep him out of it. I hope so anyway. We’ll have to talk to the lawyer about it.” 

_ We’ll _ have to talk to the lawyer about it. The little things like that Harry had started to pick up on. 

“Will you go with me? To meet with the lawyer, I mean.” 

“Of course. I know it’s not, but it feels like my lawsuit too. I’ve always thought of Laurie and Silas as twins in a lot of ways. He’s another son to me and I feel just as outraged for him and for you.” 

“It  _ is _ your lawsuit with us. We raised them together thinking they were biological brothers and that doctor took that away from all of us. You could probably even file a separate suit for that. You could charge him for all the money you spent on vacations and trips to meet up so the boys could have a relationship.” 

“I couldn’t do that,” Louis said softly, looking down, “Even if it was just to make a point. I don’t regret doing any of that. I made a really good friend out of the deal and to claim that I was misled would feel like negating all of that.” 

Harry nodded and looked down as Louis took his hand and linked their fingers together. 

“Yeah, we’ve always felt like a family,” Harry agrees, “I don’t regret any of it either. I don’t think I could have even made it past the pregnancy as well as I did if I hadn’t had you there to listen to me whine and complain.” 

Louis chuckled, “And I think I would have switched to formula after a week if you hadn’t helped me figure out the whole breastfeeding routine.” 

“It would have been fine if you didn’t,” Harry squeezed his hand.

“I know. But I really wanted to, I just didn’t have the patience with it that you had while I was getting the hang of it.” 

“All of it was a joint effort.” 

“See? Like raising twins together,” Louis smirked.

“Imagine if we were actually together having babies at the same time,” Harry laughed, “That would have been crazy.” 

“Would have been nice to have another set of hands around, honestly,” Louis shrugged. 

“You’re not wrong,” Harry chuckled. 

Louis scoffed, “You did have another pair of hands! I’ll be honest. I was jealous every time I talked to you oh so casually said  _ mom has the baby _ .” 

“Sure, but it also wasn’t that great when my mom was  _ right there _ for all of my most embarrassing moments either,” Harry shook his head with a laugh and then blushed, “Like the whole breast pump masturbation incident.” 

Harry covered his face with his hand with a groan. 

“Maybe you should have locked your door if you wanted to indulge in your kink,” Louis teased. 

“It wasn’t a kink!!” Harry laughed through his fingers as they dragged down his face, “I needed to pump before work and I also really needed to get off but I didn’t have time for both! Two birds, one stone! I didn’t know she was going to barge in on me!” 

“Uh huh, sure,” Louis shook his head, “I always thought you’d be the type for that sort of thing.” 

“What?” Harry squeaked, his hands flying up to cover what was left of his puffy breasts. 

“I’m not going to judge you for it. I’ve had my moments too. I told you before. I kind of developed a thing for it,” he shrugged casually. 

“I… I didn’t really when I was  _ actually _ breastfeeding,” Harry said slowly, “I was too sore all the time. But sometimes now…” 

Harry bit his lip, not even realizing he’d squeezed his boobs into two handfuls. They weren’t engorged like when he had a baby to feed, but there was still enough there to grab. 

“But now what?” Louis’ tone was lower, more raspy, and his eyes seemed darker as he stared at Harry like he was something to eat. It made Harry feel warm and nervous and, more importantly, a little giddy. Louis knew so many of his secrets but they hadn’t revealed all of their intimate details to each other. Harry had never acknowledged some of the things he did even to himself outside of the moment in which they happened much less voiced them outloud. 

It felt naughty to admit all these things to Louis, but the trust was already there so he wasn’t scared. 

“Sometimes I like the way it feels to milk myself.” 

Harry knew his face had to be bright red with the heat he felt below his skin. His hands were still protectively cupped over his chest as he searched Louis’ face for his reaction. 

“I liked that too,” Louis said before the tip of his tongue wet his lips, “But I’ve been dry for a long time obviously.”

Harry felt his heart thumping in nervous excitement as he made the decision to push through the lingering fear of rejection. Louis wasn’t going to run. He hadn’t last night and he was encouraging Harry now. 

He moved his fingers to rest under his areolas and then pressed and pulled his thumb down towards his nipple. After a few drags, beads of white began to collect on his tight nipples until they connected to make a big enough drop to roll off the side and across his chest. He watched Louis in his peripheral vision, unable to look directly at him for fear of seeing disgust in his eyes. Louis’ gaze was fixed on Harry’s chest, just observing until he moved a finger to delicately touch the tip of Harry’s wet nipple before circling around it. Harry whimpered at the attention, his nipples so sensitive now. 

His cunt clenched with the attention, his body primed to know what was coming when he did this. It wasn’t often, but when he really spent some time getting himself off, he started with his nipples. Loving himself had been his only sex life for over ten years so he knew how to make it good when he wanted to or had the time. 

He sucked in a breath when Louis nudged his hand out of the way to replace it with his own. Cupping from the bottom, he squeezed up to milk him and it felt even better than when he did it to himself. 

“Fuck,” Harry whined as he felt himself getting wet. He couldn’t stop himself from slipping his hand under the sheets to slide his fingers through it. His cock still needed time to recover, but the rest of him was primed and ready to go. He slid his fingers into himself and moaned, eyes closed as he just let himself feel. 

He could hear Louis’ breathing at his side and the warmth of his body so close. It didn’t take much for his own fingers to get him off again when so many of his senses were stimulated. Even Louis’ scent was starting to mean more to him than just familiarity. 

When he opened his eyes, Louis’ were glossy as they looked back at him. They stared at each other for a moment before Louis moved in to connect their lips in a deep and sensual kiss that ended with Louis getting himself off while hovering over his body. 

“I like these benefits,” Harry said after they’d been sprawled out beside each other for long enough to come down from their highs. 

“Me too. We’ll definitely have to get separate hotel rooms now,” Louis said with a small laugh. Harry couldn’t help but join in. 

They were decent by the time the boys were returned and they spent the rest of the evening on the couch together as their unusual blended family. 

  
  


\--

  
  


With such complicated emotions over what was happening, Harry thought he’d be devastated when the results of the DNA test came back as positive that he had been a victim of the manipulative doctor’s crimes. He was upset, of course he was, but his whole world didn’t implode and it didn’t change anything about his daily life. It didn’t make him look at Laurie any differently and it didn’t make him want to throw things through windows or punch his fist through a wall. 

Instead, he shed a few angry tears on Louis’ shoulder and then cuddled up with him to watch some shitty reality tv. They had some emotional sex after the kids were in bed and then the next morning came just as every morning had before. He made peace with what had happened in a way that he could handle it with Louis there to keep him together.

At the end of the week, the Tomlinson’s headed back to Colorado and life resumed while the case was being prepared by his lawyer.

It was on one of the nights when Harry had forced Laurie to snuggle up with him on the couch that Louis called his phone. It was sitting just a little too far away so he let it ring. He could call him back later. But when it started to ring again, Harry knew something was up and carefully untangled himself from under the blanket he’d been sharing with his son in order to answer it. 

“Hey Lou, what’s up?” 

_ “Hey.”  _

Immediately Harry could tell that something was wrong just from Louis’ tone. It was soft and not as bold as it usually was and the short greeting was out of character. He needed a drink anyway so he headed towards the kitchen. 

“Something wrong? What’s going on?” 

_ “Yeah, are you alone?”  _

“Just watching tv with Laurie.” 

_ “Sorry, I just need a few minutes alone if it’s okay.”  _

“Yeah sure. Are you okay?” 

Harry glanced at Laurie as he slipped into his bedroom, shutting the door before taking a seat on the bed. 

_ “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m sorry to just call you like this. I just… I just thought that you should— no, I  _ wanted  _ you to know.”  _

“Okay, I’m alone now, what’s wrong?” 

Harry could hear Louis take a breath and his voice was so small when it came out. 

_ “I’m pregnant.” _

“Pregnant?” Harry asked in confusion as his thoughts started to speed up. 

_ “Yours, of course. I asked you about protection but then never even thought about it when it came to me. It’s not your fault or anything and I don’t want you to start worrying or anything yet since it probably won’t last, but I still wanted you to know.”  _

“Are you going to…?” Harry asked as his heart started to race. Of course he would let it be Louis’ decision, but it still made his stomach drop.

_ “No! Of course not!” _ Louis rushed out,  _ “I just don’t have a good track record for keeping omega pregnancies. I had a string of miscarriages before we decided to go with an alpha donor for Silas. Plus I’m thirty-seven now so I’m automatically in the high risk category now so I don’t want you to get your hopes up or anything. It just didn’t feel right not telling you about it.”  _

Harry’s mind was spinning but the possibility of having a baby wasn’t something he was upset about. It wasn’t something he had ever even considered. It would be complicated, sure, and yet that didn’t bother him. It did bother him that he wasn’t in Colorado with Louis in case something did happen. 

“Does Silas know? Do we need to tell Laurie?” 

_ “No, I’m not going to tell anyone. Well, Niall already knows, but he’s the one who made me realize I was even pregnant. Obviously he was around when I got pregnant with Silas and he’s the one who told me to go get a test when I kept saying my breakfast wasn’t sitting well. It will be easier if nobody knows about it.”  _

“Have you been to a doctor?” 

_ “No, I only took the test about twenty minutes ago,” _ his laugh sounded like a shadow of its usual self.  _ “I called you right away.”  _

“I’m glad you did. Wow,” Harry pulled his fingers through his hair and stared down at the worn carpet. He really needed to have it shampooed. “A baby.” 

_ “Harry, please don’t,” _ Louis said softly,  _ “It probably won’t happen.” _

“Will you at least see a specialist?” Harry asked, “At least to make sure you’re okay? There are doctors that specialize in stuff like this and I could find one for you.” 

_ “Sure, I’ll go. It’s not like I want anything to happen, you know? I just know how all the others went.”  _

“I could fly out there? Just me. I could leave Laurie with my mom.” 

_ “There’s no use in that, Harry. It could be gone before you even get here.”  _

It had been just over a month since Louis had shown up at Harry’s door so he wasn’t very far along at all. Omega/Omega pregnancies were always fragile, especially at the beginning. It was always a toss up on whether the right genetic matchups made the pregnancy viable in the first place and then the fertilized eggs had a disadvantage without the alpha hormones present to strengthen them. It was why so many OLOs turned to sperm banks and other methods. 

“But then I would be there either way. Unless you don’t want me to be there.” 

_ “I don’t know, Harry. I just found out myself so I haven’t had time to even process this yet. I was happy with one kid, you know? I haven’t even thought about the possibility of another for years.”  _

Of course Harry had put that idea to bed a long time ago as well. He’d always seen himself as an infertile omega with an alpha. The idea of being on the fathering side of things was completely off his radar. 

_ “I think that maybe I should go alone at first? It will make it too real if you’re here and then harder when it doesn’t, you know… and then we can talk about it after.”  _

Harry nodded to himself as he sat alone in his room.  _ The _ room where it had all happened. 

“Yeah, sure. I get that,” Harry said softly. He wanted to be there but understood Louis’ reasoning. Louis had gone through all this multiple times before. “I’ll drop everything and fly out if you change your mind, okay?”

_ “I’ll see if I can get in sometime this week and then I’ll let you know and we can figure it out.”  _

“Either way, let me know.” 

  
  


\--

  
  


“It’s a baby,” Louis said over Facetime after his appointment when Harry answered. “They did bloodwork and gave me all the shots and everything.” 

“Did they say anything else? Good or bad?” Harry asked anxiously. In a week Harry had had time to roll the idea over in his mind and the more he did, the more he liked it. Louis was a good parent and he couldn’t think of anyone else he’d rather be a parent with. He already  _ was _ a parent with him in so many ways. 

_ “Things look good right now,” _ Louis shrugged and looked off out the window away from where he was holding his phone. He was still in his car, but Harry couldn’t tell if he was still at the clinic or if he had driven back to work.  _ “Measuring about seven weeks which would be about right so that’s normal. They can’t do any DNA work yet but didn’t see any red flags there and they gave me a round of hormone blockers to keep mine from kicking it out before it’s more established.”  _

“So now what?” Harry asked as he pulled on his lip. 

_ “Now we wait,” _ Louis shrugged and moved his attention back to his screen. “It feels different than the others. I never got sick with any of those until after. We were always so anxious to see that we did the tests before I ever had any signs.”

“So that’s good, right?” 

_ “If you want it to be good,” _ Louis shrugged again. 

“Why wouldn’t I want it to be good?” 

_ “I just…” _ Louis averted his eyes again,  _ “I don’t want you to feel obligated if this happens.”  _

Harry was taken aback by that comment, frowning at the screen. “We’ve already been raising the boys as brothers. Why would this be any different?” 

_ “It would just be different this time, you know? It would be our biological child.”  _

“So? That makes it more important in my opinion. Until recently we said it was important to keep the boys together for the same reason. And you know I always wished I could have more kids.” 

Louis smiled fondly to himself as if he forgot they were on Facetime. 

_ “I just wanted to give you that option,”  _ Louis breathed out, _ “You know, in case you decide it isn’t what you want.”  _

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Harry said firmly, “It’s not just about being responsible for it, I’ve been thinking more about it and I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I want another chance to be a parent. I thought I’d lost that and I’m a little excited that I might get another shot at it.” 

_ “I said don’t get your hopes up too much,” _ Louis said,  _ “I have to make it past the first trimester before we can even look at it as something that’s happening.”  _

“But they said it looked good though?” Harry still asked hopefully. 

_ “Yeah, so far so good.”  _

Harry didn’t miss the small smile or how Louis’ voice went all soft and fond. It made Harry smile right back. 

The phone calls after that were in a much different tone than they had been during the first part of their shared pregnancies. For one, Harry wasn’t pregnant so he couldn’t compare his own symptoms and struggles. For two, Louis was more reserved than Harry had ever seen him before. 

It was self preservation, Harry told himself. He knew Louis fully expected to wake up to a miscarriage every morning and was trying keep himself from growing attached to the idea. That meant that when Louis brought it up, it wasn’t in the same loud and proud way he had the first time around. It was difficult for Harry not to bring it up in the way it felt like they should be talking about it while also being respectful. It wasn’t his body that would be going through it and it didn’t feel like his place to force it out. 

But it was also affecting their relationship so after several weeks, Harry decided it was his turn to surprise Louis with a visit. 

His mom was more than happy to keep Laurie and get him to school and activities and he always had more vacation time at work than he was able to use. Plus he rarely did anything spontaneous and it felt like the time to do it. 

The drive from the Denver airport was long and the little rental car he’d picked up smelled faintly of stale cigarette smoke and strong cleaner. A nice headache had brewed by the time he turned into Louis’ neighborhood after the sun had already ducked behind the distant mountain range to the west. 

There was still enough light that he could take a nice look at the houses he passed by. The lots were nice sized with thick sod lawns with sprinkler systems that were misting the edges of the surrounding sidewalks. It was part of a newer development and Harry liked that not all the houses looked the same like some of the cookie cutter communities built in recent years. He remembered helping Louis pick out the house when the sleep center really took off and he could afford to invest in something nice. The house was too big for just the two of them, but gave Harry and Laurie their own guest bedrooms to stay in whenever they visited. 

Driving down the street, Harry had a strange moment where everything seemed to click into place. It was so familiar to drive towards Louis’ house. It felt more routine than a surprise visit from halfway across the country should have felt. Harry could see himself taking this route on his way home from work or a trip to the grocery store. It fit like an old worn pair of favourite jeans he didn’t often have the luxury or wearing. 

He parked along the curb and grabbed his bag, texting Louis so he wouldn’t scare him with the unexpected doorbell so late in the evening.

“Harry? What are you doing here?” Louis asked as he stepped out onto the front porch in one of his old ratty hoodies. 

“Wanted to see you,” Harry shrugged and was glad that Louis melted into his arms when he went in to wrap him up in a hug. “Thought it was my turn to be here for you since you kept trying to talk me out of it when I asked.” 

When he pulled back, he could see that Louis’ eyes were a bit watery but he smiled through it and invited him inside.

“It’s been a shitty few days,” Louis admitted as he blew a breath out and brushed his hair off his forehead. “But it’s really good to see you.” 

Harry pulled him back into a hug after setting down his bag, not wanting to let him go. 

“I’ve just been so exhausted and Silas is going through a phase of pushing all my buttons all the time and not wanting to get up for school when I already feel like shit in the mornings,” Louis mumbled into his chest, appearing much smaller and younger than his years. 

“Let’s get you to bed early, then,” Harry said softly against his temple. 

Silas was already in his room for the night, Louis poking his head in with a hard stop time for his video games that Harry promised to enforce if Louis fell asleep. 

Harry didn’t head to the guest room as he normally did, instead following behind Louis to his own. He didn’t have much of a choice when Louis had taken his hand to lead the way which was nice that there weren’t any mixed signals to navigate. 

“What would you think about us moving here?” Harry asked when they were cuddled up in the middle of Louis’ large king size bed. 

“You can’t just give up your job and everything, Harry,” Louis said softly. At least that didn’t sound like an immediate no. 

“It’s just a job,” Harry shrugged, “A job I’ve never loved anyway. I’m sure there are plenty of jobs out here in finance or for loan officers.” 

“What about Laurie? You can’t just take him away from school and his friends.” 

“He’s ten. He’d be fine. Plus he has Silas so he wouldn’t be on his own. He’s not in the middle of high school or anything which would make things harder. You know we both love it out here. I think he would be excited.” 

“What brought this on?” Louis asked, his demeanor still uncharacteristically withdrawn as he played with the edge of the bedsheet. 

“It felt really nice driving here tonight. I don’t feel out of place here.” Harry frowned when he realized what he was doing, quickly walking back a few steps. “I don’t mean to invite myself to move in with you. We can find a place close by in the same school district. I would like to be here to help with the baby and all of that and it would be easier than living so far away.” 

“What if you move here and there is no baby?” Louis asked hardly above a whisper. 

“Then all the more reason,” Harry shrugged a shoulder. “It’s not just about that, but it’s a good reason to push me to make that decision. Honestly I only started thinking about it on the way here so I’d have to work out the details, but I’m willing to figure it out if it’s alright with you.” 

Louis took a moment before he said anything and then was hesitant when he did. 

“Harry, when you say you want to move here and help with the baby, are you saying it as us being together or as joint custody friends?” 

The question made Harry pause. It had been a wild few months of revelations and new information and discoveries about himself that had blown his mundane life out of the water. Sleeping with Louis had been a life changing moment that opened another side of his sexuality that he’d never explored. Before that, he’d never thought of himself as OLO and yet, as Louis asked this question of him, Harry realized he had never questioned whether they would be together. His thought process had already changed to have no hesitation when he thought of being with Louis. That was already his default. 

“I guess I assumed… We can talk about it and figure it out. Whatever you want. If you want us to do this as friends, we can do that.” 

“You would want that?” Louis pushed himself up so he could see Harry’s face, “Us together?” 

“I didn’t really think about it that much, but I guess this whole time I’ve just assumed that we would be. I guess that was kind of bold of me, but yeah.” 

“You wouldn’t want to go out and find an alpha?”

“I haven’t gone out to find an alpha in years and I’ve been fine.” 

“You wouldn’t be disappointed I don’t have a knot?” 

“You made me come harder than a knot ever has,” Harry blushed as he admitted. “I know I always thought I wanted an alpha, but I think that’s just because that was what I thought I was supposed to want. The thought of being with you doesn’t scare me. It feels natural, honestly, like maybe we should have been this whole time.” 

“I’ve been a little stressed out because it feels like this is really happening. I never got so sick and had all the symptoms all those other times like I have this time. I don’t know what’s going to happen or if it really is going to make it, but if it does, I don’t want to be a single parent again. It has worked out fine with Silas, but I don’t have the energy I used to have in my twenties. I know that sounds dramatic, but I’m tired, Harry. I’m tired and I don’t want to do it on my own.”

Louis’ eyes had started to well up with tears and Harry gently wiped them away as soon as they started to fall. He would feel the same way if their roles were reversed. He was lucky enough to have his mom around for the hardest months of having a new baby and it had still been overwhelming and exhausting. To do all of that alone now sounded like more than he would be able to handle. As an omega who had given birth himself, he understood. 

“Then let me move closer. I can cash in my vacation time and maybe have enough saved up to take a couple months off when the baby is born so I can be around to help. Silas and Laurie are old enough to start helping out with more chores around the house too. You won’t have to do it all alone.” 

Louis leaned forward and pressed their lips together in a kiss that felt like an expression of relief. Harry held him as he kissed back, smiling through it until their teeth clicked together. 

“I can already feel that it’s there,” Louis spoke softly like a secret between them. “I’m scared of having false hope, but it does feel different this time.” 

Louis took Harry’s hand and led it down to his lower belly. He pressed gently and Harry remembered how the first signs of his own pregnancy had felt. The hard bump under the surface was unmistakable when he knew what he was feeling around for but unnoticeable in every other way. 

“I can’t believe that you fucked me once and this happens,” Louis said with a small laugh as he rested their foreheads together. 

Harry snorted out a laugh, but honestly, what were the odds? 

He pushed up Louis’ shirt to rest his hand on bare skin while he wondered if sending good vibes had any proven track record. For now he would at least try it. 

“If you move out here, I’d want you to move in with us,” Louis murmured softly like a secret. “There’s more than enough room in this house for all of us.” 

“Okay, Lou. That sounds perfect.” 

  
  


\--

  
  


Harry had always had a good relationship with his son. Even when Laurie had been naughty as a child, he still came to Harry to confess, even when he was upset. Harry had always raised him to be open and honest and Harry had shown him the same respect. So Harry had been feeling a little guilty about not telling Laurie about everything that had been happening that he wasn’t aware of. 

They’d discussed it, and Louis agreed that they should talk to the kids about everything one on one. Just because they’d raised them as long distance brothers didn’t mean they didn’t have attachments to their own parents or that an emotional conversation might bring up some ugly things about the other in the moment. It just sounded like a better idea. 

“Silas already told me about you and his dad if that’s what you want to tell me,” Laurie said as they sat down on the couch. There weren’t many times they had sat down to have a serious conversation and Laurie was smart enough to know it wasn’t just about what they were having for supper that night. 

“What did he tell you?” Harry asked with a small laugh, arranging himself into a comfortable position so they were facing each other. 

“That you stayed in his room when you went there like Lou stayed in your room here,” Laurie said like that explained it all.

“Yeah, I did stay in his room,” Harry nodded. No sense in trying to hide it. “I guess we’ll start there, then. You know that Louis’ been my best friend since before you were even born…” 

“Ughhh! You don’t have to explain it!” Laurie dragged his hands down his face which made Harry laugh. 

“That’s okay with you?” Harry checked just to make sure they were on the same page. 

“Omegas can get married now so it’s not a big deal.” 

Laurie shrugged and Harry beamed at his son. Times were so different now and he was so proud that there wasn’t even any hesitation in his answer even at his age. 

“Okay, good, because I have a few more things to talk to you about.” He took a moment to collect his thoughts even though he’d rehearsed how this conversation might go. “How would you feel about moving to Colorado to live with Lou and Silas?” 

That was a good place to start. A safe question to ease into things. 

“Do I get my own room?” 

“I’m sure you could get your own room,” Harry chuckled. “So does that mean you’re okay with it?” 

“Does that mean I don’t have to go back to school?” he asked hopefully. 

“You still have to go to school in Colorado,” Harry snorted, “You don’t get to quit, but you wouldn’t go to your current school anymore.” 

“Oh. Okay,” Laurie shrugged. 

“We’re going to move out there because me and Louis are going to have a baby that will be your new little sibling.” 

This is the part that made Harry hold his breath. He had no idea how Laurie would react to such news since it was never something that had been brought up. When other little kids asked for a new brother or sister, Laurie never had. 

“Really?” Laurie made a face that could mean many things but Harry had last seen it when there was onion on his cheeseburger. “Do I have to change diapers?” 

“Only if you want to be helpful,” Harry replied as he pulled on his bottom lip. 

“Because I don’t want to change diapers.” 

Harry laughed and pulled Laurie into a hug even if he pretended he didn’t want it. 

“We have a long time before we get to diapers,” Harry pressed a kiss onto the top of his son’s head. 

Now came the part that Harry still wasn’t sure how to explain. Laurie only had a basic grasp why he didn’t have a dad around and why Silas was his half brother. It still felt like he was too young to know the details of the process and this made it even more complicated. 

“I have something else to talk to you about,” Harry kept his arms around his son, keeping them close more so for his own sake. 

“You already know that I met Louis because we both picked out the same dad and that made you and Silas half brothers, right?” Laurie nodded against his chest. “And then we did the mouth swab thing so we could see where we were from, yeah?” Laurie nodded again and Harry took a few calming breaths. “We got the results back and it showed that you and Silas weren’t related.” 

Laurie popped his head up and looked confused which immediately broke Harry’s heart. The last thing he wanted to do was start crying and upset Laurie even more, but it felt like that might happen. He tried to keep it together. 

“We found out that the doctor switched things without me knowing. He did that for a bunch of people.” He reached forward to smooth the line between Laurie’s out gently with his thumb. “Silas will always be your brother, even if it’s not biologically. But that does mean you don’t have the same dad to visit when you turn eighteen like we talked about.” 

It was difficult to see the emotions passing over Laurie’s face, each one hurting Harry ten times more. 

“I won’t stop you from meeting him when you turn eighteen, but you need to know that he did some things that were bad and there is a possibility that he might spend some time in jail for them. That doesn’t mean anything about you, okay?” He cupped Laurie’s face in his hands and brushed his thumbs over his cheeks. “He made some bad choices and that doesn’t transfer to you. You’re my baby first, okay?” 

He kissed Laurie’s forehead after he nodded, pulling him in to snuggle as he absorbed all the new information. 

He let Laurie snuggle in his bed that night to watch a movie, letting him stay after he fell asleep. But when Louis called, Harry crept back out into the livingroom. 

“How did it go?” Harry asked when he answered. 

_ “Eh… He was excited about the idea of you guys moving here, took the whole paternity thing in stride and then flipped out about the baby,”  _ Louis said with a small laugh.  _ “He’s not very happy about it, but he’ll come around.”  _

Harry smirked, “Laurie just didn’t want to change diapers, but I think he’s fine with it. He’ll probably have more questions or more to say about it tomorrow, but tonight went okay.” 

_ “I don’t know what his issue is with it, but he’ll be fine. He’ll be too distracted with Laurie here to care when everything starts happening.”  _

“Speaking of that, they want to go public with the lawsuit to see if anyone else will come forward. I’d really like to get Laurie out of state before that happens so he won’t have to deal with it. He doesn’t need to find out all the details at his age, not yet. Would you be okay with him staying out there with you while I wrapped everything up here? I’ll come out with him to get him registered for school and everything.” 

_ “Yeah, of course.”  _

“He’s good with mornings most of the time.” 

_ “It’s not a problem, Harry, honestly. It’ll be a nice way to ease into things.”  _

Thankfully Laurie was already out with Louis when the story about the doctor broke. Small town news was slow, but Harry still wasn’t expecting to see news vans from two different stations outside his duplex waiting for an interview. He didn’t even know what he could say and rushed into the house without responding to their questions. 

The house was nearly empty and he was glad that he’d sold most of his furniture and anything else he wasn’t taking before there was a small camp on his lawn. He never would have been able to sell anything with that roadblock. As it was, he was worried that they would document his moving truck being loaded that was scheduled to come in just a few days. 

“I’ll be so glad to be away from this,” Harry told Louis as he ate his microwave dinner since the rest of the kitchenware was already packed up. “It just makes me feel so gross and dirty. It’s one thing to know some sick doctor inseminated me with his own sperm and something else to have everyone else know it. I don’t want them thinking about that when they look at me.” 

_ “I know. You can give an interview closer to the trial on your own terms, if you want. Don’t let them corner you like that just for a breaking news segment. Go with Dateline or 20/20 so you can cry with soft lighting in the conference room of a hotel.”  _

Harry snorted out a laugh. “I never thought I’d be a news story in general. I don’t know how I feel about really going public. Having my name out there already seems like a lot.” 

_ “Why couldn’t you keep it anonymous?”  _

“I don’t know. I wanted people to see it as a real thing with faces and families behind it. I didn’t want it to sound like a blind accusation.” 

_ “Good thing your name isn’t on anything out here. They’ll never find you!”  _

“We’ll just have to try to keep it that way until after this whole thing is over. Which by the way. The truck will probably be out there on Friday and then I’m driving the car out on Saturday. I’ll probably get in pretty late. Don’t lift any of the stuff when they come, just let them bring it in and me and the boys will go through it when I get there, okay?” 

_ “Got it. I can’t wait.”  _

  
  


\--one year later--

  
  


“You know you didn’t have to come if you were going to complain about it the whole time,” Harry laughs as they finally step into the hotel elevator. 

“I didn’t know it was going to take so long! I thought maybe a couple hours tops! Not six!” 

Harry smirked as he took his time pressing the button to their floor, his smug expression sticking as he watched his husband shift his shirt and jacked uncomfortably. 

They’d just heard the final ruling in their case and there was reason to celebrate. They’d been awarded the compensation they’d asked for and the doctor was sentenced to six months in jail for contempt of court. Harry wished there was more that could be done, but there weren’t any specific laws about handling donated sperm that could apply to their specific case. But at least it was something. 

He was happy to have Louis by his side, but that also meant that Louis hadn’t had the chance to pump or even feed since Harry’s mom had the baby. 

“You’re finneeeeee,” Harry grinned as he crossed his arms and leaned against the back of the elevator casually. If he was being honest, he was a little uncomfortable himself, but his production wasn’t near as heavy as Louis. Harry could get by twice a day if he needed too, just enough to fill in gaps when Louis was at work and just for his own enjoyment. He wouldn’t admit it in that moment when he was teasing Louis, though. 

“I knew I should have brought the bag when we left this morning,” Louis grumbled as they headed down the hall to their room, already unbuttoning his shirt. 

Harry held the key to the lock and opened the door, standing to the side for Louis to slip into the room first. 

“It’s painful, you know,” Louis continued to grumble as he shed his jacket and pulled the tails of his shirt free. The soft nursing bra easily snapped off, the fabric already soaked from his leaking breasts. “You’re not helping any.” 

Harry grinned. He couldn’t help it. Louis always got a little cranky when his schedule was thrown off. 

Being with Louis through a pregnancy and the aftermath in person was about the same as their phone relationship had been. The difference was that Harry could anticipate Louis’ needs and usually calm things down before Louis hit peak frustration. He’d always felt like he couldn’t do much over the phone to help even when Harry was going through some of the same struggles himself. 

“Can you get the pump put together?” Louis asked as he passed by en route to the bathroom. His dress shirt hung loosely off his shoulders with his naked chest exposed, his nipples already weeping trails of milk down his torso. 

Harry waited a beat after he’d shrugged off his own jacket and then followed Louis into the bathroom where he stood at the sink washing his hands. He stepped up behind him until he had Louis crowded up against the counter, the warmth of his front pressed against Louis’ back. 

Louis looked up to make eye contact with him in the mirror. “What are you doing? I asked you to do one thing for me, one thing!” 

Harry ducked a kiss to Louis’ temple as his hands smoothed across Louis’ hips and then slowly up his bare stomach. 

“Shh, I got you,” Harry murmured as the V of his thumb and forefinger cupped beneath Louis’ breasts. He pushed up and then pulled forward with a squeeze, a duel spray of milk hitting the mirror and dotting the countertop from his practiced motion. 

“Shit,” Louis whimpered as Harry repeated the motion with another spray. 

“That feel good?” Harry mumbled near Louis’ ear, his large hands continuing his slow milking pulls. 

He watched their reflection in the mirror, their image only slightly distorted by the rogue streams that clung to the glass. This was something they never did unless they were in the shower together, the mess too much to deal with in their own home. He’d have to leave an extra large tip when they checked out even if he would end up cleaning most of it up himself anyway. 

“Let me take care of it,” his low voice soothed as he continued the lazy but purposeful motion. Louis relaxed back against him, his hands still wet after only just managing to turn off the tap. “I don’t get to see it like this very often.” 

This was something they’d indulged in when they had the chance ever since Harry had officially moved to Colorado. It started with working Harry up to more than just some random drops forced from his nipples. With daily attention, Harry’s small mounds were soon consistently producing a few ounces, enough that he had to carry nursing pads in case he started leaking while he was out of the house. 

He loved it. They both did. It wasn’t something they could deny now that it was a thing. 

Seeing the picture they made in the reflection of the large bathroom mirror was taking Harry to another level. He was hard where he was pressed up against Louis’ ass but he was in no hurry to get on with it. This was his reward for months of stress and anxiety over the case that was finally resolved. He was going to savour every minute of it. 

Harry knew just how sensitive Louis was when he was breastfeeding and knew how to push that to just the edge of pain. Each motion narrowed to pinch his nipples just enough to make him shiver but not wince. 

Puddles of watery white milk collected on the dark marble countertop and drops slid down the basin of the sink towards the drain. 

“You’re so full,” Harry mumbled and punctuated it with a small thrust of his hips. 

“You’re ruining my shirt,” Louis whimpered but his protest was weak. They both knew that was the least pressing non-issue about what they were doing. 

“It’s fine,” Harry pressed his words into the skin near Louis’ ear with a kiss while his hands continued their languorous motions.

They both watched the scene through the mirror, fixated on it like their own personalized porn while Harry continued to milk him out. He could feel his own nipples weeping where they were pressed against Louis’ back, the wet fabric of Louis’ shirt kept warm by Louis’ body heat. Most often during sex their chests ended up pressed together, their milk mixing to create a wet slide of skin. Between milk and slick and come it was nearly impossible to go without a shower once they were done. 

“Do we have much time before your mom gets here?” Louis breathed out just as Harry gave his nipples an extra pinch. “ _ Fuck. _ ” 

“Not much,” Harry smirked over his shoulder as he gave them another pinch. 

“Shit,” Louis shuddered, breathing heavily, “That’s making me so wet.” 

“I know. I can smell it,” Harry sucked a line into his sweet skin, so attuned to Louis’ scent after being together for so long. 

“Fuck me on the counter,” Louis pleaded as he started to fumble with his belt. He dropped his pants and turned in Harry’s arms, hopping up on the counter and spreading his thighs as an invitation. 

Harry made quick work of losing his pants before fitting himself between Louis’ knees. “Condom?”

Louis felt around for their toiletries bag, toothbrushes and deodorant scattering through the breastmilk on the counter as he rifled through it for the string of condoms tucked inside. Harry gave their dicks a few pulls together in one hand as Louis ripped one of the squares open. They’d already talked about the idea of trying for one more, but not when they were still counting age by months. They both agreed that would be too much. 

Harry looked down between them and watched as Louis rolled the condom onto his dick for him and led the tip to its mark. He shifted to rub his own thighs together, just as wet between his own legs. They were fairly even when it came to whose what went where, but Harry had grown quite fond of being the one inside Louis. Their sex life was always colourful. 

Scooting to the very edge of the counter, Harry leaned his weight forward to push inside, Louis’ legs then raising to hook around his hips. 

“So good,” Harry mumbled before capturing his lips, their kiss urgent and heated as he started a slow grind. 

Louis braced a hand behind him when Harry’s slid up to milk him again, taking a moment to feel their weight and run his thumbs over his wet nipples. His expert squeeze and pull motion sprayed his own chest now, dipping to take one into his mouth for a taste. They were already covered and sticky, but Harry didn’t care. It bathed him in Louis’ scent even more than what already clung to his skin. 

It wasn’t a good angle to keep suckling with his small thrusts, but his hands continued to work at expressing all he could. They had so much breastmilk saved up that he didn’t worry about wasting it, not knowing when he would have a chance to do this again. 

So focused on his own efforts, Harry didn’t even notice Louis’ hand creeping to his chest until the squeeze that brought drips of his own milk into the mix. Harry moaned and his hips stuttered, momentarily pausing to watch as they merged together in the pools and rivulets collecting on Louis’ stomach. 

While he wasn’t in a good position to do so, Louis was positioned almost perfectly to lean forward and wrap his lips around Harry’s nipple. It was sensory overload to add more stimulation to the already exciting activities they were in. His hips jumped forward into a quick rhythm while one milk covered hand slid into Louis’ hair to hold his head to his chest and the other continued to squeeze and pull, the wet mess building up between them. His bare feet threatened to slip out from under him on the now wet tile floor but he didn’t stop. 

He reached down to stroke Louis’ dick, his skin slick and wet from the milky shower. Louis moaned around Harry’s nipple, his latch so unique against his nipple. It was like a string was directly connected from Louis’ tongue down through his balls that tightened as he rolled towards the edge. 

Their little grunts and noises were familiar to each other now and Louis started to come just before Harry got there himself. They panted into each other’s mouths as they kissed with sloppy tongues, Harry able to taste the sweetness of himself lingering as he explored. 

“We’re so gross,” Louis groaned as their skin started to feel tacky as things began to dry. 

“No regrets,” Harry grinned as he pecked one more kiss before holding the condom and pulling out. 

The truth was, everything around them was gross. There were pools of milk on the floor where it had dripped from the counter and dried white watermarks covering the glass of the mirror. Their black toilitries bag was soaked through and everything else spilled and wet around it. 

He tossed the condom and grabbed one of the towels to start wiping off their things, a satisfied smirk stuck on his face as he snuck sly glances at Louis. Even with the mess, that had been some of the hottest sex he’d ever had. 

Louis continued to sit on the edge of the counter, hands on his cheeks like Harry had fucked his mind blank. Harry felt more than a little smug about rendering Louis speechless. 

“What the fuck just happened,” Louis mumbled after a few more minutes and Harry honked out a laugh. He set their little bag on top of the toilet tank and then stopped to kiss Louis’ forehead. 

“That good, huh?” he grinned as he leaned in to turn on the shower. 

Louis shrugged his soaked shirt from off his shoulders and let it drop to the floor with their other clothes. 

“Really good,” he agreed, “I don’t know if my legs will even hold me up.” 

“I’ll help you,” Harry assured him as he mopped up the floor and then kicked the wet towels to the corner. They’d have to call for more once they were cleaned up. 

The mirror was already starting to fog up when they stepped into the warm water, Harry’s arms around Louis just as he’d promised. 

“So much everywhere and still so heavy,” Louis mumbled as he leaned back against Harry’s chest and guided his hands up to his breasts. 

Even though his thumbs had cramped with the repeated motion, Harry didn’t hesitate before starting to milk him again. It was slow and sensual this time, the water washing away every trace that Harry worked out of him. 

“Mmm, feels good,” Louis hummed, eyes closed and head resting back against Harry’s shoulder as they swayed to a silent beat. 

They stayed in their bubble as long as they could until their fingers started to prune and they realized they would have to be responsible parents again soon. 

They took turns shampooing and washing their bodies, Harry using the time it took Louis to wash his hair to manually milk himself.

“It’s not as hot when you do it like it’s a chore,” Louis said as he wrinkled his nose. It was a playful comment that made Harry shake his head with a laugh. 

“Not all of us can make it look as sexy as you,” Harry joked and made a face like a low budget porno as he stuck out his chest and squeezed. 

“Never do that again, I’m begging,” Louis said with an exaggerated look of disgust. Harry stepped closer and leaned in so his lips touched the shell of Louis’ ear. 

“Later I’ll let you nurse after the baby’s down,” he whispered and grinned when Louis moaned in response. “But my mom is meeting us for dinner soon so we don’t have time for more sexy right now.” 

Louis shook his head and rolled his eyes like Harry was being ridiculous, but they both knew it was happening. It was going to be a perfect end to a good day. 


	3. The End

**They Raised Their Children As Half Brothers From The Same Sperm Donor. A DNA Test Proving They Weren’t Related Made Them A Family.**

Omegas Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson never thought they’d be looking through a catalog of sperm donors when they decided to become parents. Living halfway across the country from one another, their lives were so different but one thing would bring them together. 

“It was a strange experience,” said Styles about picking out the perfect donor. “I don’t think it’s something you can fully prepare yourself for. There’s something unnatural about picking out what attributes you want your child to inherit. I spent a long time looking at the search options for eye colour and hair colour and everything else wondering if it was shallow to want my child to look a certain way.” 

Styles wasn’t in it for a cherry picked baby. Diagnosed with a precancerous condition, he was told he might never carry his own child if he didn’t do it as soon as possible. 

“It felt like a difficult decision at the time, but in retrospect I don’t think I would have chosen not to. In the back of my mind I always knew I was going to do it.” 

As a single omega, he faced many challenges when it came to getting pregnant. Fresh out of college and not yet financial stable, the burden of supporting himself through a pregnancy and then a child was daunting. After he scraped up enough money to purchase his donor sperm, he fought his insurance company to cover the routine costs of his pregnancy. With no alpha involved, they argued the office visits, prescriptions and procedures were outside their guaranteed coverage starting with the hormone injections given before insemination. 

“Everyone at the clinic was really helpful in advocating for me. I don’t think I could have managed if it wasn’t for their help. It was a big reason why I chose to stay with them through the whole process instead of shopping around for other IUI options. They really seemed to have the knowledge and experience to make me feel comfortable with such a nerve racking decision.”

Despite the hiccups and financial decisions that needed to be made, Styles was inseminated with the donor sperm during an office visit and went home to anxiously await the results. 

“I took the day off leading up to a weekend,” Styles recalls, “Which wasn’t a good idea when I started to go still crazy after just a few hours. The anticipation was too much and I didn’t have anything to distract me.” 

That’s when Styles remembered the support forums offered to verified customers of the nationwide sperm bank. After logging on he found a thread labeled with his donor’s identification number and connected with the only person that had commented there. That person was Louis Tomlinson. 

“I forgot all about it,” Tomlinson remembers, “Until I got the message I’d put it out of my mind.”

It was fate that the two met when they did. Tomlinson had gone through the process only two weeks earlier. 

“My partner and I struggled to get pregnant and decided our best shot at having a family was to find an alpha donor. He picked out the donor and even though it didn’t work out between us, his choice led me to Harry.” 

Finding himself suddenly and unexpectedly on this journey alone, Tomlinson was happy to have someone to go through everything with. Frequent phone calls kept them in touch until the birth of their sons. The Tomlinson’s made the trip when the boys were just a month old which started a tradition of visits and family vacations for the two friends to keep the half brothers close. 

“We didn’t keep it a secret from the boys. They maybe didn’t understand the concept completely with age appropriate explanations, but they knew they had the same alpha for a father and that if they chose to, they could search for him when they turned 18.” 

Which was something the boys were excited to do together. Since legally they weren’t able to attempt to find or contact the anonymous alpha per their contract with the sperm bank, the omegas decided to satisfy some of their interest with a DNA test through one of the ancestry pages. “We knew we couldn’t use the connect with relatives side for the boys yet, but we decided it would be an interesting compromise to see what part of the world we all came from. We were all curious anyway,” Styles remembered.

The results they returned would be life changing. 

“I just remember staring at the screen and thinking there had to be some kind of mistake. I thought maybe the data wasn’t loaded or we hadn’t accepted the share invitation. It took a long time for me to realize it was telling me that the boys weren’t related at all. I think Harry dropped a jar of something on the floor when I told him.” 

They compared their paperwork again to confirm that they had selected the same donor from the same sperm bank and everything still matched up. It was then that they both contacted their clinics. Tomlinson’s records were immediately handed over while Styes hit a roadblock. After finally sitting down with a coordinator of his clinic, they told him that his sample had been traded for a fresh sample provided the day of his insemination which was something that, according to him, hadn’t happened. 

“I was using a sperm bank because I didn’t have an alpha,” Harry insists, “It didn’t make sense that it was noted that way in my charts. I found it odd that they wouldn’t let me see the records with my own eyes as well. There were too many red flags.” 

On his way out, he was referred to a lawyer by one of the employees. After following up, he found out that he wasn’t the only omega questioning the paternity of his child. One of the doctors had already been accused of switching donor sperm out for his own and the lawyer suspected Harry was a victim of this as well. A DNA test confirmed their suspicions. 

“I was devastated honestly,” Harry still grows teary over the memory, “I called Louis and he surprised me by flying in. I don’t think I would have held up as well as I did without him being there. We’d gone through so many things together, but this was different. We met and became friends thinking our children were siblings. It felt like it changed everything.” 

It was through all the emotional stress that their relationship began to grow into something else. Just weeks after the DNA results were in, Louis found out he was pregnant. 

Louis remembers the experience vividly. “I was really worried about it. I’d had several miscarriages with my ex before trying other methods so I was expecting that to happen again, but here we are with a baby together and another on the way.” 

Moving to Colorado turned out to be a good decision as news of the scandal and lawsuit took flight. Trying to dodge reporters eager to report on the story was easier while residing in another state. Styles started working with the family business as they started to build a life together with their boys still remaining siblings even if that title moved from half brothers to step brothers. 

“It was an unusual way of meeting and then eventually being together, but I don’t think either of us felt like it wasn’t a natural move. We realized we’d already been living as a long distance couple raising children together before the idea ever came to us. It’s a modern fairy tale in my opinion,” Louis says fondly. 

After winning their lawsuit, the family is still going strong even several years later. 

“It was a lot of pain, but it brought us together. I don’t think I would go back and change anything since it got me here.” 

_ Don’t miss the rest of their story on 20/20 this Friday at 10EST.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [here is a tumblr post!!](https://jaerie.tumblr.com/post/623801954045427712/donor-conceived-e31k-abo-by-jaerie-when-harry) and everyone go read and support the fics from [momrry fest!](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/momrryfest2020)


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